Investing good/bad time

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By "we" I am generalizing for the majority of the US population. Look at the data. Heck, effective household earnings are back at 1977-1978 levels, let alone 2008 levels. Over 46 MILL people are on food stamps, or 19.7% of households. That's not better than 2008. Back in 1969 less
Sure some people are better off, not the millions of former American white collar/salaried workers in their later 40's to early 60's that were downsized to greeters at Walmart. I would expect the age group of 25-48 to have fared much better than the youngsters and oldsters whose skill set and vitality is still peaking. Someone is clearly doing better since the stock market and properly located real estate is higher. The top 10% are doing much better than 7 years ago. They are the ones who have the means to be well-invested in the stock market. How about the bottom 49% of wage earners? Ask them. John Kerry made the mistake of discounting those bottom 49% in the last election cycle. Didn't help him much. Ask the majority of people in the USA northeast. The housing markets are still in shambles. The majority of the US is not better off....and it's not entirely their fault either. 60/120 year economic cycles don't end quietly.
 
Originally Posted By: 69GTX
By "we" I am generalizing for the majority of the US population. Look at the data. Heck, effective household earnings are back at 1977-1978 levels, let alone 2008 levels. Over 46 MILL people are on food stamps, or 19.7% of households. That's not better than 2008. Back in 1969 less div>


Exactly.

Couple that with 94 Million not in the work force and this whole "recovery" looks like a fraud.
 
69GTX,

My 401K is up 8.4% this year. I rebalance out of company stock so I don't have all my eggs in one basket.

But for the long term, nothing can beat long term investing. I have a family member working as a truck driver for Publix Supermarkets for 35 years, he retired with over a million in his company retirement: 401K and ESOP (employee stock ownership plan).
 
It's always a good time as 'investing' precludes otherwise frivolous frittering away of capital.

Long or short in the portfolio is the challenging aspect as there's no bell that rings when the market cycles...as it inevitably does.

Reinvest dividends and profits, never touch the principal and only invest what you can afford to lose.
smile.gif
 
Unless you are a daytrader, don't even bother trying to time the markets. For long term investing, buy and forget about them.

I self direct my own holdings, and as mentioned, be sure to set the dividends to DRIP (automatically buy more shares with the dividend).
 
Originally Posted By: Turk
Originally Posted By: 69GTX
By "we" I am generalizing for the majority of the US population. Look at the data. Heck, effective household earnings are back at 1977-1978 levels, let alone 2008 levels. Over 46 MILL people are on food stamps, or 19.7% of households. That's not better than 2008. Back in 1969 less div>


Exactly.

Couple that with 94 Million not in the work force and this whole "recovery" looks like a fraud.


Yet the stock market doesn't really reflect that in our economy, as the stock market has been growing steadily (except for some nominal roller coaster ups/downs) ever since the "recovery" started.

The stock market is all about big corporation and people with lots of money who drive and manipulate the market more than than the real economy does.
 
Originally Posted By: Bandito440
Also, the conspiracy/panic/Illumanati crowd will post shortly and tell you to spend your money on gold, dehydrated food, bunkers, etc. Feel free to disregard the financial advice of anyone who has no retirement savings of their own, but somehow feels qualifies to manage your money with fear they gained from Info Wars.


---^

duplicate post please delete
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: Bandito440
Also, the conspiracy/panic/Illumanati crowd will post shortly and tell you to spend your money on gold, dehydrated food, bunkers, etc. Feel free to disregard the financial advice of anyone who has no retirement savings of their own, but somehow feels qualifies to manage your money with fear they gained from Info Wars.


---^

THIS. The board is a FOX news echo chamber. pretty sad.
The only way to invest and make a lot of money is when it's difficult such as the plunge in 08.

The reasonable way is to spread it out using income as you make it. the worst enemy now are the hidden fees.
 
Originally Posted By: JohnnyMerrill
...the worst enemy now are the hidden fees.

By some remote chance are you or yours any relation to the Lynch family?

From and by whom are your alleged and so-called "hidden fees" hidden?

The SEC, FINRA el al have required and mandated by myriad state and federal laws enforcing investment concerns forthrightly disclose
any and all "fees" associated with their shell games in written disclosures before defecating any investor funds away, typically with
a larger font and oftentimes in bold on the 'sign here' paperwork. I've files full of them for your perusal if need be.

Our current administration has been all about transparency and finance reform for ~seven years, golfing partners notwithstanding.
Thanks be to goodness.
 
Originally Posted By: JohnnyMerrill
...the hidden fees are within whatever 401k program a company chooses and they vary greatly.

Did you read not your paperwork, JohnnyMerrill?

They're certainly not "hidden" from you, your CPA, your tax attorney and/or your investment adviser.
Prior to investing.
They do indeed, however, vary over time.

Let them occupy your rational thought processes then share them with us.
Not your portfolio, just the "hidden" fees that have been disclosed.
 
Originally Posted By: splinter
Originally Posted By: JohnnyMerrill
...the hidden fees are within whatever 401k program a company chooses and they vary greatly.

Did you read not your paperwork, JohnnyMerrill?

They're certainly not "hidden" from you, your CPA, your tax attorney and/or your investment adviser.
Prior to investing.
They do indeed, however, vary over time.

Let them occupy your rational thought processes then share them with us.
Not your portfolio, just the "hidden" fees that have been disclosed.


not everyone has the time to read the fine print and they trust their company. screw em, right, goober
 
Originally Posted By: splinter
Originally Posted By: JohnnyMerrill
...the worst enemy now are the hidden fees.


Our current administration has been all about transparency and finance reform for ~seven years, golfing partners notwithstanding.
Thanks be to goodness.


Ha ha. Regardless of the rest of this thread, you have to be kidding? Transparency?
 
Originally Posted By: JohnnyMerrill
...not everyone has the time to read the fine print and they trust their company. screw em, right, goober

It’s conduct unbecoming a man of your station to resort to stereotypical personal attacks and belittling the 'working class' in threads such as these.

Had you read the “fine print” of BITOG you’d know I’m a retired carpenter who had trouble getting out of 8th grade.
Just a little hard work, luck and sacrifice meant I was able to provide a comfortable life for my family.

And I'm neither a "goober" nor a victim, sir.
 
Originally Posted By: JohnnyMerrill
what are you babbling about? the hidden fees are within whatever 401k program a company chooses and they vary greatly.


That's why Vanguard is your friend, ultra low cost fees.
 
Originally Posted By: surfstar

Try picking a "top". Tell me when you cannot see what is beyond the right hand side of any point on that chart, how do you know its a "top".
YOU DON'T. No one does.



Nobody can. At some point, the probability is that there maybe a top with no subsequent top for a long period after - that's not being doom and gloom, that's just being realistic of what could happen.

Or it may not.

So as you said, nobody knows really, well, except for a few at the top of the elite banking cartel perhaps.

But the thing with all of this is, that in personal investing, like it or not, there is indeed some level of emotion that gets tied in. Said emotions get stirred up pretty bad if six months after a lump sum entry, it is way down. Of course, it could be up a little or a lot after the same six months...

But my read on the OP's point (and mine as a result) was that, in essence, the guilt of putting in a lump sum at once and chancing a hefty loss when markets seem somewhat high, is worse than the opportunity cost of doing DCA as an entry and watching carefully.

Of course Vanguard has studied that very situation as well (linked on the first page), but there always is a mental component IF someone sees a loss right away.
 
I've been investing since 1982, and knowing what I know today the best way is:
50% lump sum invest
50% dollar cost average

Fortunately it has grown very nicely since the early 1980's through good and bad times and various problems in the USA (recessions, market corrections, war, terrorist attacks, terrible presidents, ...etc...)
 
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