Please be respectful of others' privacy, and avoid sharing personal information or sensitive content without their permission. If you are unsure if something is appropriate to share, ask for permission (use the 'Privately email' option when replying to their post) or avoid sharing it altogether.
- Manlobbi
Personal Finance Topics / Retirement Investing
No. of Recommendations: 1
Obviously with an unnecessary war and unknown goals, plans, etc. it never helps financial markets. Today, early, most everything is down, stocks, foreign stocks, bonds, and gold.
I'm seeing elsewhere people kind of panicking because they assume incorrect that when one asset goes down something else will go up. While that happens often it is far from guaranteed. A lot of people a few years ago finally realized bonds don't always go up and those funds can and do drop 10%+ at times, especially once a bull market ends.
I'm certainly not happy about seeing my accounts drop, trying to avoid looking, but unfortunately short of treasuries, CDs, TIPs, etc. most things go up and down.
I do have a bunch of cash that I kept thinking "I really should do something with this" and am glad I didn't. I don't think I will need to touch any investments for a decade so that is good despite not looking good.
And this is when people with annuities are grateful they don't have to worry about the market despite them in general being poor investments historically(!!!).
Good luck
Rich
No. of Recommendations: 3
I think this is the converse of "picking up pennies in front of a steamroller". Which is a success, right up until the point that the steamroller arrives.
That would be "picking up glowing hot Krugerrands that people are tossing out the windows because they are glowing hot."
In the immortal words: "DON'T PANIC"
BTW, this war has been ongoing since November 4, 1979. We just pretended it wasn't.
No. of Recommendations: 7
Yes, we've always been at war with Eurasia.
No. of Recommendations: 2
FWIW, my 'goto' spreadsheet displaying changes in market value affords four glimpses of liquid holdings, expressed in dollars, percent and elapsed time:
- Since prior close.
- Since ownership high (accounts shown withdrawal-adjusted).
- Since lowest low post high (accounts shown withdrawal-adjusted).
- Since outset (since purchase date for individual equities).
This goes a long way toward alleviating anxiety by regarding whatever's happening now within a long-term perspective. It's always a relief to frame a near-term decline within a sizeable long-term positive CAGR. I imagine something along these lines is common practice among Shrewds.
Tom
No. of Recommendations: 3
I'm seeing elsewhere people kind of panicking...
People's memories are short. This happens over and over again, and is nothing new. My first experience was Black Monday 1987, with a 22.6% drop in the DJIA, when I tried unsuccessfully to convince my soon to be Ex not to liquidate his IRA. He insisted I knew nothing while he had a degree in Finance from a prestigious university. Probably the basis for my lack of appreciation for the value of the alphabet soup of letters after someone's name wrt financial planning. He liquidated the IRA AND exposed us to additional 10% penalty along with the taxable transaction, in addition to the loss in value. What a setback!
The downdraft during Covid had me throwing cash at the market, resulting in one of my best ever returns with AVGO. Bought at an unreasonably low $189/share, which soon split 1/10, leaving me with many more shares than I originally owned even after selling off a good amount at $359/share a few years after purchase. I had also done the same after the dot com bust, though nothing quite as spectacular comes to mind, in part because I did not buy individual stock. Have set aside a good amount of cash, earning a decent rate of return, for the right entry point, taking the time now to set up my purchase strategy. Note that I am not a spectacular investor, just one willing to take reasonable risks, one of which being not being fully invested in the market at all times.
Obviously with an unnecessary war and unknown goals, plans, etc. it never helps financial markets.
But it sure can be a plus for an individual investor. Keep in mind that the current administration is highly motivated by making money for themselves. This can be done in down or up markets, as long as one has prior knowledge of what is being done before the rest of us do. You can expect the markets to be volatile, as that seems to be the best market in which to make money if you have insider information. Don't expect rationality, and you will do better. It's one of the reasons why I am looking at direct indexing with tax loss harvesting.
An added bonus for us is the hike in crude, which is making it possible for us to execute sales of options we still hold from a previous employer. One lot went today and there are limit orders in place for the remaining two at escalating prices. Was starting to think those would expire with the stock price too low to execute the sale. Might still, if this skirmish blows over sooner rather than later, but IMO there is a distinct need by our fearful leader to distract the Press from other things. I expect it to go on for a while.
IP
No. of Recommendations: 10
BTW, this war has been ongoing since November 4, 1979. We just pretended it wasn't.
It really has been going on since August 19, 1953.
