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"Invest for the long term, a minimum of five years" is common advice given to stock market investors. Unfortunately, the advice has not been rewarding of late. Even with dividends reinvested, the FTSE 100 index has lost over 20% of its value since the end of 1999 and the giddy tech-boom days. However, all is not lost for current and prospective index-tracker owners -- regular investing overcomes bear markets and five-year negative returns are in reality a historical rarity. It's worth realising few people plough their life savings into shares at any one point, never to invest again. As this article demonstrates, anybody commencing monthly index-tracker contributions at the end of December 1999 (when the FTSE hit its all-time high) would now be showing a profit. Toughing it out with those regular payments during the down years of 2000, 2001 and 2002 was the key to taking full advantage of the market's sudden recovery. Even though 1998-2002, 1999-2003 and 2000-2004 all witnessed stock market declines, data from Credit Suisse First Boston shows negative five-year returns to be very infrequent. According to CSFB, 123 of the 131 rolling five-year periods since 1869 have provided investors with a positive result. In terms of beating inflation, five-year investors have succeeded on 105 occasions (or 80% of the time). CSFB's statistics also suggests the longer shares are held, the more likely investors will prosper. For instance, over the 126 rolling ten-year periods since 1869, the market has made investors money (after inflation) on 110 occasions (or 87% of the time). Furthermore, the last time anybody tracking the market for twenty years lost money (adjusted for inflation) occurred in the period ending 1921. Indeed, since the Second World War, twenty-year investors have always beaten inflation and lost only once (1955-1974) to a building society (and only then by a very thin margin). And anybody holding shares over a thirty-year time span since 1869 has yet to suffer a negative return, lose out to inflation or lose out to cash in the bank! The simple conclusion? Consider the recent negative returns to be an aberration and keep up with the tracker contributions for the next five years... and beyond! More: Index Trackers Have Beaten The Bear Market | Why You Should Have A Tracker Maynard contributes regularly to an index tracker and owns iShares FTSE 100, an exchange-traded fund that tracks the FTSE 100.