The road to recovery at last

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It's been see-sawing for a while now. I'm just disappointed, as my EFT to Scottrade has yet to go through. I wanted to hop on a little more last night, and I missed out today. :)
 
Today the market is almost down to offset yesterday's little rally.



Just checked my 401k accounts again. Down about 28% since last Dec. One account is only 5 years old and has 36% less than what my company and I have put into it...ouch.



Oh well, glad I am only 42 and still investing. Just think how much all these cheap funds will grow the next 20 years.



TJR
 
Just checked my 401k accounts again. Down about 28% since last Dec. One account is only 5 years old and has 36% less than what my company and I have put into it...ouch.



Imagine if that was your pension account and you had to retire today.



You would be screwed. Imagine if we would have privitized Social Security.



Look at how well we would have been off. Flat broke without a leg to stand on.





Tom
 
You would be screwed. Imagine if we would have privitized Social Security.



Right, because totally gov't-controlled Social Security has worked so well, and is in such sound shape right now and for the future!:blink:
 


Right, because totally gov't-controlled Social Security has worked so well, and is in such sound shape right now and for the future



It might do better if "the government" would quit reallocating the funds to something else.



As Tom said, if it was privatized and invested in the market, most retirees would have nothing.
 
Caymen,



You and others exaggerate what the impact would have been in this downturn if we had privatized SSI.



Remember, under the proposed so-called “privatization” only a small portion of the overall SSI contributions would be able to be invested in individual accounts, and then only new investments since the change over.



It wouldn’t have had a huge impact. Some, I think, but not huge.

 
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A wise man once told me "That it makes no difference if the stocks you own go up or down, unless you are ready to sell". I have stocks and they have lost money, but I don't fret about it. I am still ahead of the game overall and still make the maximum contributions to my 401K. With my employers contribution I am still make way more money than I have lost.



I also have about $40K in my interest bearing checking account that pays 4.01% interest, with no service charges and I get my checks free. Someone recently asked "Who would keep more than $10K in a checking account?" I laughed since that's more than most people are making in the stock market these days, and only if they are very lucky. Most people are loosing more than I'm making This last quarter my 401K lost 10times more money than I made in interest for one month on my checking account.



Until the stock market gets on a firmer footing, I will just keep my extra cash in my checking account where it's making money not loosingit.



...Rich
 
A wise man once said on these very forums:the smart money got out of the market a year ago:p

Just because your daddy invested in the market, by no means dictates that you should.

Are other slow but steady and safe ways to invest.

We live in a diff world than even 10 yrs ago.

If your young and starting out with a new family, you need life insurance, look at annuities

Look at the metals market, had you bought gold 6 mos ago you would be getting killed today, had you bought gold 5 yrs ago,you would be a happy camper today.

I bought a shitload of U.S savings bonds in the 80s, they make me happy today as they are all mature, slow but steady safe investments.

The stock market IMO is just a legalized gambling venue ( you win some you lose some)

My sis -in -law was over a couple days ago, shes bitchin, she lost 250k in the market in the last 120 days, she got out, than she calls yesterday and is pissed because with the rally yesterday, she would have made up maybe 30 grand of her loss.

My point is, do not think for you youngins that the market will be your key to financial independance as you get older, nor will the market get your 3 kids thru college.

If your a market addict, make sure you have at least two yrs of cold hard cash in the bank to weather what will surely be some hard times for many years to come

Good luck.
 
"That it makes no difference if the stocks you own go up or down, unless you are ready to sell"



Very true. What if you were ready to sell because you had to. Now you are screwed.



Remember, under the proposed so-called “privatization” only a small portion of the overall SSI contributions would be able to be invested in individual accounts, and then only new investments since the change over.



Small investment, small gains. If you invested 1% of your SS into an account and it gained 100%, you only got 1% extra.



So, lets place this in some simple terms. You were to get $1,000.00 a month. With a 1% gain, you would have $1,010.00.



Big spanking deal. The only winners would have been the investors that would take thier cut on your money and you would benefit nothing in the big picture.





Tom
 
Caymen,



I can't argue with your simple, hypothetical of a 1% gain. Interestingly enough pundits have said that if you calculate the actual rate of return for the current SSI it almost always comes out less than 3%. (see link below)



So, yeah, when things are crappy in the market, like they have been this past few months, heck and even years, then it might be hard to beat 3%. But over a workers lifetime, ever since the stock market has been in existence one has been able to easily beat 3% return.



The key in the market is to start young, invest gradually and for the long haul, and then transition most of your portfolio to safe funds (like cash funds) as you near retirement age. Anyone that has done that the past 10+ years and has retired in the last year or so will have done very well.



TJR
 
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