Yeah this reminds me of the .coms back in 2000-ish, all the guys convincing each other that it’ll last forever, just keep going up up up. Good luck with that - easy come, easy go as they say.

Buy and keep buying.

You only lose money if you sell.

I was afraid to look, but did, anyway. Down nearly 16% compared to the beginning of the year .

So, as soon as possible next week I'm calling our retirement funds manager and reducing our monthly withdrawal by nearly 1/3. The beginning of the year will see nearly all discretionary spending halted.

I am 67 now though wife at 61 plans to work another 6 years. I have been moving stock allocation down over the time to where we are now about a third in stocks and most of those in value orientated stock funds but it still hurts to see the losses. I may start some buying but no more than about 5 percent of total as I want to stick to conservative allocation plan. I just hope this will not be another replay of 2000,2001,2002 where the market was down three years in a row.

quote:

Originally posted by Sig209:

plowed some cash in yesterday

How are you adding money to your 401K?

quote:

Originally posted by Gear.Up:

quote:

Originally posted by Sig209:

plowed some cash in yesterday

How are you adding money to your 401K?

we have various investment options

two of them are non-equity investments - a government bond fund and the other is basically the equivalent of a MMF

so I transferred the $$ from the 'cash' to the equity choices we have - which are decent.

basically a re-allocation of the investment mix - i had been over-weighted on the cash for a while

---------------------------------------

I’m down about 6% even after moving most of my 401k to conservative stocks back in the spring. I’d hate to see it if I hadn’t.

sucks to be me

two things that come to mind.

Inflation is a real thing. And not a good one.

second

Is, I wonder how many of your financial adviser's/ planner's are ringing their hands about their own investment portfolio's while telling you it will be fine, don't overreact. We're in it for the long haul?

Down about 10% overall. I'm only 35 so plenty of time for it to play out.

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
two things that come to mind.

Inflation is a real thing. And not a good one.

second

Is, I wonder how many of your financial adviser's/ planner's are ringing their hands about their own investment portfolio's while telling you it will be fine, don't overreact. We're in it for the long haul?

Since most financial advisors are more interested in benefiting themselves, than what is best for their clients, I suspect what they are doing with tbeir own portfolios is much different than what they are advising their clients to do.

In the interest of full disclosure, you should know I think the vast majority of personal financial planners/advisors are the financial industry equivalent of Amway, Mary Kay, and used car salesmen.

quote:

Originally posted by 280nosler:
I am 76% in cash since September, and am still down $9k, or about 2.5%. I bought Amazon at $1691, and it was at 1377 today. That is worth almost $6400 in losses right there. I bought a gold index fund etf back in October, but it is only up 3.6%. waiting for vxx to drop so I can take another position.

I'm quitting my job with AWS at the end of next week. I waited for my options to vest, and the price makes me want to cry. A lot.

I'm long retired and have good income streams from real estate, dividends and interest. SS cracks my housing expense and I hustle enough to get walking around money.

I think we've got inflation and deflation going on at the same time with the trend toward deflation.

December has been quite a haircut. I watch gun broker fairly close with S&W revolvers my specialty. Many pages of 24 don't have a single bid. Cars on CarGuru often are there for 100 days or more. No financing makes it hard to sell. Cash is king.

I'm optimistic for 2019 but I'm nervous as hell. I'm in deep with Ford. I live in Lousivlle and Ford drives Louisville's economy. Right now it's @ $8 and paying over 7% div. Traditional div is 3%. Bronco and Ranger in the pipeline. Recall of 1/2 million 150s is hurting right now and the tariffs haters make political plays. Stock is beaten down and there is definitely risk. Thing I like is there are still many Ford family members living on the stock and taking part in day to day.

$8 now and it was $18 not that long ago. Back in 08 I kept buying until it got down to 6 and I ran out of nerve. I'm going to buy 2000 shares Monday. Trading will be light and I might get it cheap. And I might pussy out.

quote:

Since most financial advisors are more interested in benefiting themselves, than what is best for their clients, I suspect what they are doing with tbeir own portfolios is much different than what they are advising their clients to do.

In the interest of full disclosure, you should know I think the vast majority of personal financial planners/advisors are the financial industry equivalent of Amway, Mary Kay, and used car salesmen.

I have said here many times. I really do not know much about, much of anything, more or less.

Jallen and I would banter back and forth as he was always an advocate about letting the experts do what they do. He would get pissed at me at times when I would tell him that the experts were mostly great at doing things for themselves at other's expense. And that I advocated the common man try and learn and do for himself.
I believe that through and through.
I am with you DMF. I know there is trial and risk and the landscape if frought with danger. But all a man has is his instinct and ability to learn through trial and error and the honor of doing it his way. The learning part is the part where you seek and heed advice that you test and trust as part of the process.

quote:

Your 401k

Time to buy!

The market always trends up over time, always!, albeit with some dangerous, scary down turns.
Simply look at the historical charts for the DOW or NASDAQ. Is it trending down over time or up?

Undeniably UP.

Now I’m not completely naive about some of the reasons why, removing some of the old and vanquished stocks and replacing them with newer, hip businesses for instance. But that would be keeping up with the general business trends, correct? Did you know that General Electric was recently removed(the last of the original DOW component stocks) and replaced with Walgreens Boots Alliance? New replaces Old and the trend (stock indexes) continue their upward journey.

The big money players, I mean BIG money players, (who, I venture to say includes no one on this board), the Buffets, Soros, the FED cabal, are not going to let a down market ( which they can manipulate at will with a simple phone call or rate adjustment) keep them from making money in the long haul. The market will come back and continue its upward crazy path.

As such a time comes that the market no longer “works” as a wealth producer then we’re going to have much larger problems to worry about other than the safety or return of our money.

I’m going to retire in two years. I’m 80/20 stocks to bonds, the bonds coming from my stake in a balanced fund, which also includes stocks, so even then I’m looking at stocks as the engine to drive me forward.

Get out of debt, stay out of debt, have some readily available cash on hand for tough times, and invest in the market. Sooner or later you will be rewarded. There is no doubt it may sting at times though and it won’t be fun.

Yeah, off about 15% since summer.

I've been all cash since June so mine is stable as hell. The funds I was in are down 15 - 30 percent.

quote:

Originally posted by Bytes:
I've been all cash since June so mine is stable as hell. The funds I was in are down 15 - 30 percent.

That’s cool, but all cash since June?, whereas I just recently rec’d several thousand $$ in capital gains and dividends, reinvested as more than a few hundred shares at reduced price, which will multiply tremendously once a recovery gets under way. You got maybe 1.5 - 2% on cash with no real growth potential, which will get you no where unless you can time the market and pick the ultimate “bottom” for the ride back up.

You can’t.

But good luck!