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don't look at your 401K or your stock portfolios..

Dancing Fire

Super_Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Apr 3, 2004
Messages
33,852
if you are long in the stock market,it looks very ugly in the past 10 days ... :knockout:

about a month ago i told my wife to sell all of her 401K IF the Dow hits 13,000,well with our luck it topped out at about 12,830.i should have set my target at 12,500 instead.. :rolleyes:
 

missy

Super_Ideal_Rock
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Jun 8, 2008
Messages
53,986
ugh, I know. I begged my dh to start getting us out of the stock market after the first recession recovery but he is (was?) convinced things will get better. My question is if it will happen within our lifetime! :(( :knockout:
 

lyra

Ideal_Rock
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Jul 13, 2007
Messages
5,249
We're in Canada, but we've "lost" quite a bit so far in our RSP's. :(sad My DH is currently unemployed too.
 

missy

Super_Ideal_Rock
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Messages
53,986
lyra|1312842182|2986745 said:
We're in Canada, but we've "lost" quite a bit so far in our RSP's. :(sad My DH is currently unemployed too.

Oh, I'm so sorry lyra. I feel as we have been living constantly on the edge these days. I don't feel as if my dh or I have job security and in conjunction with everything else that is happening in the economy I feel very fragile finance wise. And unfortunately many feel the same way. :(sad
 

yssie

Super_Ideal_Rock
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27,242
Yeah... SO glad we applied for the mortgage when we did :sick:
 

Dancing Fire

Super_Ideal_Rock
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Yssie|1312843219|2986752 said:
Yeah... SO glad we applied for the mortgage when we did :sick:
the 30 yr fixed is only 4.33% today.
 

yssie

Super_Ideal_Rock
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Dancing Fire|1312844116|2986761 said:
Yssie|1312843219|2986752 said:
Yeah... SO glad we applied for the mortgage when we did :sick:
the 30 yr fixed is only 4.33% today.


Whoa!

Ours is 4.75, from three weeks ago - good credit, parents cosigning didn't make a difference. The house is well under 2x what we make annually, decent amount down. And I thought we were about as low-risk as it gets..!
 

centralsquare

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Jan 18, 2009
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Ugh - it's sickening. Just pushed retirement out by a decade.
 

Mayk

Ideal_Rock
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Feb 12, 2011
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Depressing to watch the slide down... Not feeling promising about tomorrow or the next day..and so on....
 

lulu

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Jul 11, 2003
Messages
2,328
We recovered from the '08 dump very quickly. It will come back.
 

minmin001

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Mar 21, 2011
Messages
2,047
already did~ but since I'm no where near retirement I hope it will come back~ =)
 

Dancing Fire

Super_Ideal_Rock
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Mayk|1312851110|2986845 said:
Depressing to watch the slide down... Not feeling promising about tomorrow or the next day..and so on....
all the Asian markets are looking pretty ugly at this hour... :knockout:
 

centralsquare

Ideal_Rock
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Messages
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Dancing Fire|1312857506|2986907 said:
Mayk|1312851110|2986845 said:
Depressing to watch the slide down... Not feeling promising about tomorrow or the next day..and so on....
all the Asian markets are looking pretty ugly at this hour... :knockout:

Nikkei fell 4.4% already...perhaps we should brace for another sell off on wall street tomorrow... :errrr:
 

Regular Guy

Ideal_Rock
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Jul 6, 2004
Messages
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Dancing Fire|1312844116|2986761 said:
Yssie|1312843219|2986752 said:
Yeah... SO glad we applied for the mortgage when we did :sick:
the 30 yr fixed is only 4.33% today.


4.25% here.

Now...having refinanced twice since moving 5 years ago...THAT's something you can control.

The stock market...not so much.

Yes, we're hurting.

And staying. Probably we're just stupid. I did tell the wife last week, before they covered the debt crisis, that maybe we should go into cash. But, I wasn't too serious, and we didn't.

Ira Z.
 

Kaleigh

Super_Ideal_Rock
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29,571
My husband has his own firm and is very nervous. He's watching the Asian markets.. He can't sleep. I grew up with this, and know how things go.. Up and down, topsy turvey.... I am not making light of it, the dow dropped the lowest in history , or close to it??

If you have a strong feeling, then go with your gut. I wish I had done the same in 1988. I told my dad to sell. He said why all the panick. I said I am expecting, and need to get out of the market... Like now. He said don't worry all will be fine.

I lost all my money. :blackeye:
 

soocool

Ideal_Rock
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Jan 10, 2009
Messages
2,827
DH and I have stocks, mutual funds, bonds, cash, and most importantly lots of land in various states. We have been very fortunate in that some of this land (that we bought very very cheaply) is valuable for its mineral rights and has given us much financial security.
 

iLander

Ideal_Rock
Joined
May 23, 2010
Messages
6,731
I think Standard and Poor's, the people that told everyone that all that mortgage junk was AAA/aaa, if full of cr@p.

They obviously have no clue what they're doing, and the new (3 years) CEO of the parent company (McGraw Hill) has a lot to answer for.

They should have been prosecuted or SOMETHING for lying about all those mortgage securities, but they weren't.

Now they are being irresponsible AGAIN.

We should have thrown them in jail when we had the chance. :cry: :mad:
 

partgypsy

Ideal_Rock
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Nov 7, 2004
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6,622
Well, I'm like 25 years out from retirement, so I don't have much options. I did slightly change my allocation since 2008 that is more conservative/comfortable to me, and so I'm sticking with that.
Yes, I can stick all my money in cash, but I'm not a market timer so that approach won't help me so much when I do (eventually?) retire. I wouldn't be surprised if the kind of activity we are seeing (from 2006-2011) is going to be characteristic for the next 10-15 years, things being very choppy with real return of 5-6%. But then that's better than cash or CDs.
The thing that is scary to contemplate is the end of Rome scenario where global financial markets as we know it become unstable/crash, which is not not out of the realm of possibility, considering how connected and complex things are at this point. But if that happened I think I would have more serious things to pay attention to than my retirement balance.

We have friends who sold their house for a bunch of acres and while keeping jobs for now are going to move towards self-sufficiency. So buying a trailer and moving onto their property is an option if things get really bad :tongue:
 

rosetta

Ideal_Rock
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Jan 7, 2010
Messages
3,417
I have no money in stocks, now am too nervous to ever get into them!

Loooking for our first home, but mortgages are hard to come by and we are borrowing 4x salary. Best rate for us about 3.99% and that is despite us having the most secure jobs in the country and salaries doubling in next 1-2 years.

Hard times indeed.
 

diamondseeker2006

Super_Ideal_Rock
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Jan 11, 2006
Messages
58,547
We are too close to retirement to take too much risk, so we moved a lot of the 401k into cash and bonds after the last big drop and semi-recovery. I haven't checked it today as we still have some in mutual funds. I think I won't.
 

Abril

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Apr 1, 2008
Messages
197
Huge run-up in the market. Today (August 9, 2011) is the most our portfolio has grown since we've kept track of daily gains/losses. Too bad yesterday's loss was bigger than today's gain. :Up_to_something:
 

Dancing Fire

Super_Ideal_Rock
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Messages
33,852
don't look now.. :knockout:
 

smitcompton

Ideal_Rock
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Feb 11, 2006
Messages
3,254
Hi,

I guess I am an optimist. I did lose money in the market in 2008, but recovered all of it. I am now down again, but think I will recover it again. It is a shock to look at your portfolio and see loses everyday in the thousands, I only keep about 10% in stocks.
I also keep cash because you never know, We never thought what happened in 08 would happen. I sleep at night.
 

NewEnglandLady

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Jul 27, 2007
Messages
6,299
We were hit really hard in 2008, so this time it doesn't quite sting as badly. Also, I feel like the U.S. market volatility is directly tied to other markets' volatility and NOT due to very poor infrastructure (banks) like it was in 2008, which makes me more optimistic. That being said, D expressed concern about a month ago and moved his long-term investments to bonds and kept his short-term investments in commodities. I only invest long term and kept mine in. He's faring better than I am.
 

diamondringlover

Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Dec 12, 2006
Messages
4,400
I took a big hit many years ago with stocks and money markets, so from then on out I longer have my 401K invested in stocks or money markets, its in a nice little safe account, while its not making much money it sure as heck isnt losing any money either...I am 10 years out to retirement and damn it I will retire!!!!!
 

Abril

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Apr 1, 2008
Messages
197
Another awesome day in the market. Today was the second biggest gain for us since we started keeping track.

What a week of superlatives. Monday was the biggest loss so far. Tuesday was the biggest gain. Wednesday was our third biggest loss. Thursday was the second biggest gain (vide supra).

The pattern this week has been down, up, down, up. Do you think Friday will be down?
 

centralsquare

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Jan 18, 2009
Messages
2,216
Down. I think it'll go up and down over and over again at lower magnitudes each time and then level out.
 

Amys Bling

Super_Ideal_Rock
Joined
Jun 25, 2010
Messages
11,025
Ugh...
 

Abril

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Apr 1, 2008
Messages
197
Looks like the alternating down, up, down, up streak has been broken. Thursday and Friday were back-to-back ups in the market. Overall, I'm happy where we stand. We're poised to take advantage of any further drops. (Watch. Now that I've said that, the market is going to go up on Monday.) ;))
 
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