Retirement in stocks and mutual funds?

[Mahonri]

I'm expecting the Dow to drop another 400 points today.... based on drops of the markets in Japan and Hong Kong. Europe is also seeing a free fall.

Yesterday experts were saying if you need the money in the next 5 years get out now.

I don't expect to see the DJI to go above 14,000 for another 7 years.

I'm glad that I only have a small percentage in Mutual Funds. I wish I had never bought Wamu. I also wish I had sold last year when I was telling everyone else to get out. You live and learn.... but I don't plan to retire for another 20 years so I am hopeful.

 

[I have WHAT in my yard?]

In 20 years things will have rebounded, but don't expect things to look as if they grew for the last ten years. At this point it looks like the last ten years never happened in terms of growth.

 

[PurpleChicken]

Other than jumping in and out of a few individual stocks I kept my 401k money
in money market funds. This went against popular opinion, especially for someone
in his thirties. I find populay opinion is usually wrong. My 401 did fine. It's small
but it's still there.

Now since 3/2000 when the internet bubble burst, advisors were programmed to
tell people to keep their money in real estate. Like anything, if you bought and sold at
the right time you did well. Most of us who own homes lost a lot of equity value.
Once again, popular opinion was wrong.

My opinion, for the record, is the Dow will level out soon and start a very slow rise,
hopefully matching inflation at least. Real estate values however should continue to
drop to 2000 levels. We need the next catalyst to excite the markets.

I did buy GE the other day. I lost a dollar/share in yesterdays mess but GE has
alway been good to me and fundamentally should bump up to 25 or higher soon.

 

[PurpleChicken]

I have WHAT in my yard? :

In 20 years things will have rebounded, but don't expect things to look as if they grew for the last ten years. At this point it looks like the last ten years never happened in terms of growth.

Just be careful of falling into the "Stock market is the economy" trap. The economy has
grown on a nice clip the last ten years. The stock market was WAY overvalued and,
IMO, never fell back to where it belonged. Now things are different.


The financial times we are facing now were needed to purge the market and economy.
It was avoidable to some extent but that is a different story.


There are so many stories out there of how Grandma would buy that $20 EEE savings
bond every week. People would laugh at her. Who was right? The old timers had
a much better grasp of the value of a dollar, but I digress.

 

[ruth]

There is a flip side to all of the doom and gloom being spoken today about the economy and in many, many threads here on BYC and that's the fact that if you do have a little extra money, there is money to be made. When panic causes the stock price, of a good well-grounded company, to fall - buy, buy, buy. You can turn around and sell it the next day when it goes back up a buck or two if you want. For $5 trades there's no big broker fee and you can literally make hundreds of dollars in a matter of a day without risking a whole lot.

Also, I've made a lot of money on real estate. Buying from HUD, fix it up, rent it a few years and lately have sold them for more than double what I paid. When the real estate market is in the dumps, it's a good time to buy, buy, buy. If you have good credit there are banks and lending institutions who will still give loans. Pick up a sweetheart of a deal on a foreclosed property and rent it out for more than it's payments. Wait till the market improves in a few years and sell it for a profit.

Just wanted to say that I've been reading a lot of the threads about the economy and yes, it looks really bad if you only look at it from one perspective. But buying and selling stocks/bonds/mutual funds/real estate really isn't just for the rich - working-class people can get in and pick up some great deals right now and cash in on it all.

 

[mtnhomechick]

I expect the market to go down a lot more and lay there with a few bear market bounces once in awhile.

After the tech bubble......it was transferred into housing by Greenspan.

The market and housing were artificially inflated.

But it did create jobs.......problem is most were housing or construction related. Which has popped now and there is a glut.

I believe the recession will worsen. Unemployment will rise. All the money the gov't is putting in won't help a slowing economy. It won't create jobs.

It will be global. Just my prediction.

 

[Lunachick]

That's the spirit Ruth!

 

[luvzmybabz]

When my husband was laid off in Fed we decided rather then rollover to disperse the 401 and pay off some debts and let me tell you I am so glad we did even with the extra 10% that the goverment gets we came out better then if we had left it in there and we are saving the interest on the debts. We are hoping after 2 job changes that things will settle and be able to start one up on his anniversary with this job.

 

[debilorrah]

Quote:
That "expert" was that dude who is always mad from Mad Money. He is very smart, very educated, and knows what he is talking about. HOWEVER, his statement yesterday was based on opinion and he clarified that this morning on Today. I have no room to talk because I have no money in the stock market, but I would say it would be wise to get other opinions from both conservative and liberal as to hear all sides of this crisis. Someone else mentioned it - if you have money set aside there is money to be made. I guess I am just not a doomsayer....

 

[Oblio13]

It's too late to sell. It's probably still a little early to buy.