I get the sentiment expressed here about historically it will come back, bargains to be had, it will comeback with vengeance, etc. And all that might be true.
But there are a lot of factors at play. So I do not take it for granted that all that is true.

Debt, terrific debt, An incredible inflated housing market. Rabid inflation, All kinds of tax hikes coming, world politics, war, etc, What we have been through the last few years with more coming no doubt. It is not a rosie pix.
So we'll see. I do not think counting on things in the past to be the future is a sure thing.

They wish retirement to be less comfortable for those who worked their whole lives to get there and to enjoy it. They are going to take more of it for themselves and give it to those who have no right to it.

In the long run it will all work out and the market will recover to its historical average returns. Of course, in the long run we will all be dead. Just hope the cycle lines up in your favor. Either way, making any big adjustments to your portfolio right now is a bad idea. All that does is lock in a huge guaranteed loss.

At least with the I-Bond, I wont lose money. It's a bummer you can only put $10k into per year (or $20k w/spous

My portfolio has its own echo chamber now..

quote:

Originally posted by lastmanstanding:
Mines right at the amount it was when Trump had the election stolen from him. The next day I moved it all from the market to a retirement savings trust. Actually it gained a few bucks on interest.

Oh my goodness, I did the same exact thing! My family thought I was crazy! Now they wished they were as uptight as I was. I’m afraid, It’s going to get a whole lot worse.

Damn! Looks like it's going to be worse than I thought.
Bad timing for me. I'm almost 62 and wanted to work just
part time for the next few years. Even after the divorce last year,
I still have two 401k's with a few hundred k. It will be two more
years till the adults are back in charge. I have no idea how to handle
money. When I was employed 5 months ago I couldn't make any changes
with the 401k's, now that I'm unemployed I can do anything I want
with them. Ride it out? Any advise?

quote:

Originally posted by Schmelby:
Damn! Looks like it's going to be worse than I thought.
Bad timing for me. I'm almost 62 and wanted to work just
part time for the next few years. Even after the divorce last year,
I still have two 401k's with a few hundred k. It will be two more
years till the adults are back in charge. I have no idea how to handle
money. When I was employed 5 months ago I couldn't make any changes
with the 401k's, now that I'm unemployed I can do anything I want
with them. Ride it out? Any advise?

First let me congratulate you on the decision to retire. When I was 62 I saw no way to retire. Then a childhood friend, a year older than me, had a massive stroke. Realizing that maybe I didn't need 30 years of retirement funds, I retired at 63. I wanted to retire while I still had a few years of good health. I was a CPA for 40 years.

Transfer your 401k money to Schwab or Fidelity, or both. Leave it in cash for now, or buy some 2 year Treasury bonds. Always keep at least three years of what you plan to withdraw in cash or very short term bonds or CDs.

Read Benjamin Graham's "Intelligent Investor".
https://www.amazon.com/Intelli...or%2Caps%2C57&sr=8-6

Then remember that much of the advice you hear will be wrong. If you watch Jim Cramer on CNBC, most of the advice you hear will be wrong... Professional money managers usually fail to beat the broad market averages consistently.

Then start to buy stocks. Just nibble. Take your time. In my opinion, stocks offer the best opportunity for gain, even with the current national political "management".

Don't buy mutual funds, buy ETFs if you want diversification. Don't buy long term bonds until bond rates far exceed the inflation rate. Real Estate has been good, but it may be too late to get in as an investor.

Don't buy crypto anything at your age.

Enjoy retirement!!!

Doing great. I dumped it a long time ago to use as a down payment on a waterfront house in Florida.

quote:

Originally posted by Schmelby:
Damn! Looks like it's going to be worse than I thought.
Bad timing for me. I'm almost 62 and wanted to work just
part time for the next few years. Even after the divorce last year,
I still have two 401k's with a few hundred k. It will be two more
years till the adults are back in charge. I have no idea how to handle
money. When I was employed 5 months ago I couldn't make any changes
with the 401k's, now that I'm unemployed I can do anything I want
with them. Ride it out? Any advise?

The market will recover and gain within 3-5 years. You still have time to make even more. The worst thing you can do right now is eat the losses.

Continuing to dollar cost average into the market doing the same thing I was doing before the drop.

Deeper discounts, more shares for my inflation ravaged dollars.

I can't say I'd think it wise for someone with losses to sell and lock in those losses, especially in a qualified account where you can't do a strategy like tax loss harvesting as you could in a post tax brokerage account.

Even in down years, if you stay in, you still receive dividends, etc, which you can reinvest at the lower prices, but if you go to cash, you lose out on that.

I switched to all money market funds in December. When the markets are down another 10% from here, I will begin to average back in.

Well these are the multiple body blows. A kick to the gut and then the knees buckle next. We are getting there so hang tight. There is always a reckoning for wrevkless behavior and policies. And man have er had some. When the lead balloon on the housing market comes crashing down it won't be good.

Thanks all. I have no house or car payment and about 90k in cash on hand.
It's frustrating to see 401k money vanish. Thanks Joe

Our IRA account is currently down $35,000 since January 2021.

Dont listen (follow his advice) to Jim Cramer on MSNBC.

quote:

Originally posted by 2PAK:
Dont listen (follow his advice) to Jim Cramer on MSNBC.

If you're saying to not follow Jim Cramer's advice, I agree. I paid for Jim Cramer's expensive investment advise email before. I subscribed to other expensive investment advice services either. But Jim Cramer is nothing more than a shill. Plus he parroted the admin's explanation on inflation. How a finance guy doesn't know economics and inflation is beyond me.

^^^ Yup, that's what I'm saying Rey HRH.

I'm not allowed to have a 401 because I'm on a police pension plan. My 459 is down 16% so far. My wife's 401 is a little worse off. We are just doubling our investment in the hopes that it will come back like it always has.

Decided to move today from cash into the Russell 2000 index fund. Been all cash since December. Betting on a counter-trend rally.

quote:

Originally posted by 2PAK:
Dont listen (follow his advice) to Jim Cramer on MSNBC.

Doing the exact opposite of his advice would put you further ahead.

quote:

Originally posted by FishOn:
Decided to move today from cash into the Russell 2000 index fund. Been all cash since December. Betting on a counter-trend rally.

I think there will be some kind of rally, but how much more down will there be first? I'm subscribing to the guess that the Fed won't raise rates very high, so by mid summer the market will rally on that news and on the expectation of a Republican Congress.

But after that I suspect we'll see more large losses.

We've been mostly cash since January. Probably we'll jump in before long, but with the plan to take profits by the end of the year and go back to mostly cash.