2) SPY is the gold standard for "the market" and it's your best bet for outpacing inflation with low-risk, steady gains. It's average performance from the 20s to 2019 was around 10% per year (higher lately, but so is inflation). $8,000 invested in 1980 would be almost $800k today. Regardless, the specific value of projected gains wasn't the point
To people asking what SPY is, it's the S&P 500:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o..._500_companies