CNBC pundits, analysts, hedge fund gurus and amateur market watchers love to make predictions about the future. They hum and haw about macro forces. They discuss the possible impacts of a rate increase and they debate the importance of China as the world's growth engine. They try and pinpoint what the next "game-changing" technologies or companies will be and they try and estimate what the overall market will do. This preoccupation with the future is certainly fascinating to seasoned market participants but what does it all mean for the majority of investors who most likely have a large portion of their savings exposed to the stock market or at the very least is considering where to allocate their savings? At the very least market fundamentals and economy wide transformations suggest that investors should prepare for more muted returns from their equity portfolios.

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