Richness?

[Crazed_Insanity]

Then you need to try to practice looking at the glass as WOW, it's still 90% full rather than FUCK it's 10% empty!!!

[neanderthal]

Losing 10% of my retirement over the last few days is not a great feeling.

Yeah. That's not healthy bud. A few days will never give you an accurate picture of what is going on. A better practise is to only check your 401K about every month, if not every other month. The way stocks dip and climb daily, ... you can't base your emotional well being on that.

That said, right now, with this corona virus already wrecking airlines' flights, seats sold, profitability, nevermind decimating tourist adjacent businesses balance sheets (everything from hotels to Disneyland/ Universal Studios, taxis, restaurants etc) watch your shit like a hawk!!! Put a plan in place now. If you see several days of losses in a row, better call your investment broker and have them reallocate your funds to something more stable.

I'm watching the Fortune 500 as a benchmark of the greater stock market. Several days in a row of losses/ selloffs could be the proverbial straw that broke the bulls back, pun intended. And when it happens we are in for a bear of a market. Pun intended again.

[Leon]

I'm not retiring for 20 years. So that's about 20 years for stocks to recover from the plague.

We've seen many such plagues over the years.

If this is the one that destroys the world, the retirement savings probably aren't too crucial anyway ;-)

[neanderthal]

I'm not retiring for 20 years. So that's about 20 years for stocks to recover from the plague.

We've seen many such plagues over the years.

If this is the one that destroys the world, the retirement savings probably aren't too crucial anyway ;-)

Neither am I but I moved from LA to be able to buy a house. i don't plan on being house rich and 401K poor in the future.

[Leon]

Ah right, then that is very frustrating timing for you

[neanderthal]

So i lost about 10% too, from end of Jan to end of Feb. All of that in one week really.

Friday I wanted to observe the stock market and sell if need be, like I suggested to Jason up there. Work decided to completely occupy me instead. I guess i'll see what's what on Monday. Hold on to company stock and sell the few funds I have.

Then, theoretically, buy them back on the dip.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Don’t try to time the market dude.

When I was younger, I had it all in market index funds in 401k, but now that I’m older, I have 70% market fund and 30% stable value fund.

Yeah, last Friday my market value fund dropped quite a bit below 70% so I moved money around to maintain that same 70/30 ratio. In the coming months, if market continues to drop more, I might adjust the ratio to 80/20 or 90/10...

Once I’m 100% in the market, I’m just going to sit tight and stop looking at it...

I think the key to be rich is for you to have money to be able to buy when everyone is freaking out and selling. When everyone is irrationally buying, that’s the time you sell. The rich elite is always doing the opposite of whatever the mass is doing...

[Dicknose]

Hold on to company stock and sell the few funds I have.

Then, theoretically, buy them back on the dip.

Sounds like you could be selling them near the bottom.

Volatile times can be a great time to get active in the market. Can also be a bad time.

[IMOA]

To make it very clear to anyone reading along what Billi has said is correct. If we're talking retirement savings, that won't be needed for a long time, trying to time the market selling out to buy back in at the bottom is a really stupid investment strategy. Breathtakingly stupid.

Save early, save often, invest in a balanced growth oriented portfolio (being 100% in shares is also really stupid) and let compounding do its job.

[neanderthal]

Sounds like you could be selling them near the bottom.

Volatile times can be a great time to get active in the market. Can also be a bad time.

It's been a small dip so far. It started on Monday (I think), recovered a little bit, was kinda bumpy throughout the week depending on which exact funds/ stocks you were looking at, then there was a selloff on Friday.

It's not too late to implement my "sell company stock" plan, but i've honestly decided to just keep it. If I do sell company stock i will never be able to have as much a percentage of my 401K be company stock; they recently restricted company stock to 50% of your withholding and 50% of your portfolio. It will recover. And after recovering, then rallying, it will split. So i'm not worried about company stock. I was going to be ok with that whether I sold or stayed put.

It's the mutual funds that i'm thinking of ditching, to park that money in a stable value fund. And that's only 10% of my portfolio. If they sell off again on Monday i'll sell my mutual funds.