Rewind your portfolio. Live it forward.

You retire on March 1, 2000, with the Nasdaq nearly doubled in a year and the economy in the longest expansion on record. On March 10 the Nasdaq peaks; within a year it has lost more than half its value, and companies worth billions are gone. In 2001 the economy slips into recession, and Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan cuts rates eleven times. On September 11 terrorists attack New York and Washington, and the stock market closes for four days. Enron and then WorldCom collapse in accounting scandals, and in March 2003 President Bush sends troops into Iraq.

You retire on September 1, 2007, as the housing bubble bursts. Within a year, President Bush and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke face the worst financial crisis since the Depression: Bear Stearns is sold in a weekend, then Lehman Brothers goes bankrupt, Congress passes a $700 billion bailout, and rates are cut to almost zero. President Obama takes office in the middle of it, unemployment reaches 10%, and Europe's debt crisis and a downgrade of America's credit rating are still to come.

You retire on May 1, 2011, two years after the last crash hit bottom, and that night President Obama announces that Osama bin Laden has been killed. By summer, President Obama and Speaker John Boehner are fighting over the debt ceiling to the last day. S&P cuts America's credit rating for the first time, and the market has its worst day since 2008. Greece and Italy push Europe into a debt crisis, gas is near $4, and the Fed promises to keep rates at almost zero. In May 2012 Greeks line up to empty their bank accounts, and in July European Central Bank President Mario Draghi says he will do whatever it takes to save the euro.

You retire on August 1, 2015, six years into a rising market. Ten days later China devalues its currency, and on August 24 the Dow drops more than 1,000 points in its first minutes of trading. Oil keeps falling, to $26 a barrel in February, and in December Fed Chair Janet Yellen raises rates for the first time in almost ten years. The new year opens with China halting its own stock market twice in one week, and in June Britain votes to leave the European Union.

You retire on October 1, 2018, with the market near a record high, and that Friday unemployment falls to 3.7%, the lowest in almost 50 years. Two days after you retire, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell says rates are "a long way" from neutral, and October becomes the market's worst month in seven years. President Trump threatens more tariffs on China, oil falls by more than 40%, and in December the Fed raises rates again. Three days before Christmas, the government shuts down.

You retire on February 1, 2020, with the market near a record and unemployment the lowest in 50 years, while a new virus spreads in China. By March it's everywhere. The market falls faster than it ever has from a record, trading is halted four times in two weeks, and Fed Chairman Jerome Powell cuts rates to zero on a Sunday. Offices, schools and stores close, 20 million jobs are lost in April, and Congress passes a $2.2 trillion rescue.

You retire on September 1, 2020, with the market back at a record six months after its fastest fall ever, and millions still out of work. Within a week, the Nasdaq falls 10% in three trading days. Cases climb through the fall, President Trump is taken to the hospital with the virus a month before the election, and Joe Biden wins it. On November 9, Pfizer says its vaccine works, and the first shots are given on December 14. In January, more than 4,000 Americans die of COVID in a single day, a mob storms the Capitol, and President Biden takes office. By late February, the dead pass 500,000.

You retire on March 1, 2021, a year after COVID shut the country, with vaccines going into arms and the market near a record. On March 11 President Biden signs a $1.9 trillion relief bill, and by May prices are rising faster than at any time since 2008; Fed Chairman Jerome Powell calls it transitory. In February 2022 Russia invades Ukraine, by June gas is over $5 a gallon, and inflation passes 9%, the highest in more than 40 years. The Fed raises rates faster than at any time since the early 1980s, and stocks and bonds fall together.

You retire on March 1, 2023, a year into the fastest rate rises in four decades, with inflation still above 6%. On March 10 Silicon Valley Bank fails in two days, the biggest bank failure since 2008; two days later Signature Bank fails, and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and the Fed guarantee every deposit at both. UBS takes over Credit Suisse, and in May First Republic is seized and sold to JPMorgan Chase. In October the ten-year Treasury touches 5%, a rate last seen in 2007, and in December Fed Chairman Jerome Powell says rate cuts are being discussed.

You retire on February 1, 2025, twelve days after President Trump's second inauguration, and that day he orders tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China. The market sets a record on February 19, then slides. On April 2 the President announces tariffs on almost every country, and the market has its worst two days since COVID. China answers, tariffs between the two pass 100%, and for once Treasury bonds and the dollar fall along with stocks.

Pick your own dates: any month from January 2008 on as the day you retire, and any later month as the end. Your portfolio lives every month in between, with the people, the headlines and the moves that touched your money, and your withdrawal deposited into your checking account at the end of each one.