We got a letter the other day from Lin’s retirement fund. He didn’t open it. I usually wait until he opens it, but after it sat there for a few days, I sort of gathered he wasn’t going to do so. I couldn’t resist, because while I have been looking at the graph showing me how horribly things are going on a daily basis, that really didn’t tell me anything about our particular situation.
$474.45 is what we have lost, so far. To someone who has been investing for a long time, or someone who has far more money to invest, this probably seems like a small amount. To us, this is a lot of money to see vanish. In fact, it’s 17% of our investment for the year. I guess I’m thankful we don’t have more money to invest, because we’d have lost so much more.
There doesn’t seem to be a bottom in sight with this market drop-off. I am beginning to rethink whether or not to stick it out.
I swear this is what happens every time we do the right thing. We should have maintained our carefree hippie lifestyle and not worried about retirement. Can’t win for trying.
It is a federal offense to open mail that is not addressed to you. We can settle out of court for a nominal fee… Really, Don’t bring me down.
You really got to keep your eyes on “this one!” :ugone2far
I’m your wife. I’m sure the courts would forgive me for opening mail you never open.
You have got to be bored and goofing off at work. Can’t find anything better to read than my blog? Poor thing.
Waiting on a steel delivery.
At least there’s free beer.
(If you can call miller lite beer)
:heart:
I knew you were having a beer! I’m psychic that way.
It’s so fun to see comments between you and Lin!
And the reason I’m commenting is…I was actually just reading this article about investments and stuff, so thought I’d drop the link your way.
http://www.wisebread.com/why-young-investors-should-stay-the-course-and-continue-to-invest
I know, intellectually, that staying the course is the best thing to do, but boy is it scary. Right now it just feels like dropping money into a sinkhole.
Thanks for that link. It was actually very reassuring. Now I just have to stop obsessing on that damn graph every day. It only upsets me.
Xin Lu’s advice is dangerous cliche, the stuff one expects to hear from interested parties interviewed on Bloomberg. “Stay the course” is the last thing any serious investor would ever consider. The equities markets are and have always been a big betting parlor, a variation on pari-mutuel, except the ‘house’ isn’t the track and the state, but rather the insiders at the big investment companies who manipulate up share price using other peoples’ money and leverage, then sell short and leave the small fry and 401k ‘dollar cost averagers’ holding the empty bank bag.
Experienced people have been in Treasuries for the last fifteen months, and that’s what the talking heads mean by ‘credit crunch.’ Those folks aren’t going to expose any of their cash to risk until they see that all the fraud (read bubble) has been rung out of the markets, which might be a while.
Herr Steinbruck was right when he said Americans were incompetent to handle their own money.
I’ll admit, I am not terribly knowledgeable about this stuff. I’m a newbie, and I am learning. I’d rather be learning while things were on an even keel, but beggars can’t be choosers. Maybe by the time things settle down I’ll actually understand all this stuff. Hopefully, we don’t get screwed in the meantime.
Maybe I should take a class.