There is a paradox that breaks the expectations of even smart investors: an asset can generate income while simultaneously depreciating. This is not a strategy error or a 'bad market'. This is a normal state of the system.
Key confusion lies in the mixing of two different concepts: yield and price growth. Yield is a flow. Price is an assessment. They live different lives and very rarely grow simultaneously.
The market is indifferent to how useful an asset is. Food is needed by everyone, but farmers go bankrupt. Oil is the foundation of the economy, but oil companies stagnate for years. The Internet is vital, but telecom companies do not become richer in proportion to demand.
The price reflects not utility, but expectations. It rises when money has not yet arrived, when there is hope, when the future seems brighter than the present. When an asset becomes familiar and integrated into life, the market stops overpaying for it.
That is why there can be a situation where there is income, but capital does not grow. The interest only compensates for depreciation. Formally, everything works, but visually — it's just treading water.
This is the toughest phase for an investor. Because it tests not the strategy, but the psyche. The market does not reward patience immediately. It rewards it later — and not for everyone.
It is important to understand: the absence of growth is not always a mistake. Often it is just a phase in which the market promises nothing. And those who endure this stay in the game longer than others.
Wealth appears not where there is profitability, and not where there is growth. But only at the rare moment when these two things coincide in time.