Stock Market

[teeder]

I can't look!

And me, in my infinite wisdom, quit my job and am starting my own business on Monday!
Oh well, living in a house is over-rated, right?

[phlemmy]

Selling short, Sean?

My 401k has lost over 1/3 of it's value in the last few weeks....

my 401 hasn't changed much because much of my stuff was in more bond type funds. market goes down, bonds go up.

also, with prices on everything going down, i'm dumping a lot more into my online trader account. GM @ $5! you know that won't last long. chinese stocks, wind energy, latin american investments and biomedical stocks have all done pretty well lately.

[jingle_jangle]

After a successful and completely stress-free year living in semi-retirement in the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia in a gorgeous log home, I decided to re-relocate back to Southern California, and re-start my design business there. I made a trip back to SoCal and had successful meetings with a half-dozen old clients, and booked enough work to keep me in business for a couple of years.

I moved back myself in Ryder's largest truck, furniture in half, machinery in the other half. My son--then 16--and I drove for 16 hours a day and made it back in 3 1/2 days, arriving late Monday, October 19, 1987. Yep. Black Monday. I spent the last four hours of the drive listening to news reports of the Dow in free-fall.

(Remember--it dropped over 500 points to--gasp--1789 or thereabouts. 1789! It's LOST more than that in the last few days!)

I contacted my clients the next day to find that all of their R&D budgets had been frozen. I set up shop anyway--what was I to do? It was nearly three months before work trickled in, but I did manage to re-start. The stress was high, but I never regretted my decision to become active again.

Before moving to Virginia, I had gotten out of the stock market. I had some other investments, and to me the stock market has always felt like gambling. All the TV commercials for financial services are aimed at a similar point: to reassure that YOUR money is safe in somebody else's hands. I was never wealthy, and I've nearly always worked hard. But I couldn't see trusting anyone else with the money I'd worked so hard to earn while they spread it around in an attempt to compete with each other for a one point advantage in returns over one year. They lived well on churning OPM; my broker was always calling me with deals and it took a lot of guts to trust him, or a lot of time to research his recommendations in pre-internet days. In the end, it looked as safe as gambling on the weather. Banks were safer, I reasoned, because they were insured by the FDIC up to a certain limit. But I still felt a bit uneasy at night.

I've been out of the market for 22 years now. I've dabbled in bonds and once had a position in commodities, but it was not my career and I couldn't give it enough time and effort to keep my nerve. I have always opted out of the 401K thing, though I was tempted. But I've got a different take on life than golf, travel, and leisure. I enjoy my work and will be doing it until they bury me with one Rick. The rest will go to my daughter.

A close friend has been single all her life, and she is five years from retirement. She's regularly contributed the max to her 401k, since that program was instituted. Before that she was heavily invested in stocks and bonds. She has watched her new worth decrease by 40% in the last year, and retirement looks like a vague misty dream to her right now. Fortunately, she's always lived in apartments, too.

I hope things get better for everyone's sake. This sort of unregulated, arrogant greed that victimizes citizens has to be reined in.

Pity that it's taken this sort of thing to happen, to get people angry. And (part-time cynic that I am) I wonder how well our trusted leaders will be able to get it right the next time, too.

[jimk]

Paul, your story rather reminds me of a conversation I had with an uncle of mine not too long ago. It started out with my uncle asking if I had any investiments. After thinking awhile, I answered "Yes, I do; I live in it." (meaning my house.)

And he chuckled and he said "That isn't exactly what I meant."
I said "I know" and added "I've never been comfortable playing the stock market. It always seemed like gambling to me. And I'm a sore loser when it comes to gambling. Why, you may as well take your money down to the race track and bet on the dogs."

"It isn't gambling," he replied.

"That's what you say now. But wait till the stock market tanks and you lose your shirt," I said.

At this point, overhearing the conversation from the kitchen, my aunt sticks her head through the doorway and says to me "I'm with you!"

This ended the conversation post haste.

JimK

[Scastles]

I can't look!

I'm having difficulty looking myself. But as is human nature, I peek too much. It's unavoidable, like rubbernecking when you come up on a traffic accident.

[JakeK]

I haven't broken the rules! I haven't bought a new guitar since April (and it was a Tele). I wish my family and I had more money at the moment, so I could try and find a used RI 1997, 1997SPC or even a 1998 PT, and buy a VOX AC-30 HW2. But alas, the economy sucks, so no new guitars or AC for Jake at the moment.

[johnallg]

Sean has the right idea. I am years from retirement and I see this as a great buying opportunity - every dollar I contribute to my 401k is buying more shares, and when this all turns around, AND IT WILL, it will be to advantage. My heart goes out to those nearing or in retirement. Being in this market lately and on a fixed income has to be really scary!

I would not and do not have the nerves for investing in singular stocks or bonds. Mutual and Bond funds from major houses with no loads and low fees are very easy to find and return more than current CD rates and savings accounts. Those two do not even keep up with inflation. Finding funds that return 10%+ is easy, and when the market is smoother, beats inflation.

I wish they would cut off the daytraders - get it back to having to pay a commission along with trade fees and see if it is a body rush then! I don't see how a stock can not be worth holding one day and the next it is bought back up. Literally.

[phlemmy]

no, no cutting off the day traders. that is what i am just starting to do now!

[johnallg]

no, no cutting off the day traders. that is what i am just starting to do now!

It's what's causing the day to day volatility. Market drops 5.5% one day, then goes back up 5% the next day. Suddenly those stocks that were worthless yesterday and worth dumping are gems today?! If day traders paid a commission on every trade, they would be making a whole h*ll of a lot less trades and not closing out at the end of every day. I can only imagine what their Schedule D looks like. 100 pages long!

[jps]