Poll: Have Recent Market Conditions Caused You to Make Any Investment Changes?
Posted on Mon, 13th October, 2008 by Jeremy (19) Comments
Following the worst week in our market’s history, many people have had enough and can’t stand to lose any more. Others are viewing this as a buying opportunity and loading up on deeply discounted stocks. And of course, you have those who are just plugging away and staying the course, regardless of how hard it is to watch.
The situation that has unfolded over the past few weeks especially has had a profound impact on how many people view the markets. We all know that markets go up, go down, and do everything in-between. But some experts say this time is different. There are a number of underlying financial issues that we haven’t experienced before, and some are unsure how we’ll recover from it, and how long it might take. Does this change how we should look at long-term investing?
I don’t have the answers, but I know a lot of people are making some crazy predictions and changes to their investments right now. So, what have you done over the past few weeks in response to this crazy market?
Loading ...
I recently switched my retirement fund allocation to 100% equities. I had been 75/25 in stocks/bond due to the uncertainty in the financial market, but now that equities are so cheap, it’s a must that long term investors pick up stocks selling at such discounts.
Plus, I’ve got 30+ years to retire anyways, so short term pain is trivial.
If you are any kind of investor, you will see this as a great buying opportunity. For example if you go to the mall and a store is having a sale of 30-50%, it’s a great bargain. That is exactly what is happening now. A lot of great investments are at a tremendous discount and ones who take advantage of the sale will benefit the most.
Didn’t sell any stock, but I’ve been stockpiling cash. Also pulled savings out of WaMU and moved it elsewhere.
Yeah, I don’t know if I mentioned it in the past, but a few months ago my wife and I both increased our 401k/457 contributions. Not quite able to max them out this year, but now is the time to load up if you have time on your side.
Sadly, I’ve already talked to a couple people that moved their investments to cash on Friday, and have called in today wanting to get back into equities after seeing the market move today. All I can do is shake my head.
I’m holding the course – I do have some cash so might do some buying in the next little while.
I checked staying the course. However, I think I should point out that I was already at about 99% equities, and the only additional money I could put into investments is being put toward my mortgage (I’d rather pay it off than invest it, though if things keep going down, I may have to re-evaluate).
I have 30 years till retirement so if equities continue to go down doesn’t really matter to me. I’ve moved more money from T-bills, bonds over to equities late last week, because I couldn’t resist the discounts.
If I had extra money to invest right now, I would. I’m investing the maximum I can afford (12%) in my 401(k) at the moment, so I’ll just have to be satisfied with that. I have 30-odd years until retirement, so I see this as an good opportunity.
I’ve not actually been investing,just had my savings account, but with this current market downturn I might change my strategy and finally start my long term blue chip portfolio!
29yo with 75/25 stock to bond ratio. Keeping the same allocation however I decreased my pre-tax contrib from 8 to 4%. My official explanation is that I’m stockpiling cash for a down on a house. LA home prices are coming close to affordability!
This was a great post! There is so much turbulence in the
market today, and people need peace of mind more than
ever. I wanted to offer your readers a link to another
blogger who is doing great work. He writes about our
childhood money messages’ and how the best approach to
stability in today’s market is to resist letting these
emotions control our buying/selling habits. It is really
fascinating work, and something you should all check out.
His name is Spencer Sherman, and you can view his blog at
http://www.curemoneymadness.com/blog.
Yes I am staying the course. Unfortunately I can’t invest more right now, or else I would be, but at the end of this quarter, we’ll examine it again…
Well as you can imagine,if I had extra money to invest right now, I would. I’m investing the maximum I can afford at the moment, so I’ll just have to be satisfied with that. I still have a long time before thinking about retirement – 29 odd years, guess I should consider myself lucky about this.
I’ve got some positions that I cashed out a few months back, and put the money into savings accounts. I’m thinking it’s time to get back in the game again very shortly, just waiting to pick my spot, probably one of the financial institutions.
People are freaking out about the economy but honestly there are still jobs out there. Here are 3 job sites from About.com’s top 10 job site list.
http://www.linkedin.com (networking)
http://www.indeed.com (aggregated listings)
http://www.realmatch.com (matches you to jobs)
Whole top 10 list here:
http://jobsearch.about.com/od/joblistings/tp/jobbanks.htm
I personally see this as a massive buying opportunity. I remember struggling to find anything that wasn’t overvalued earlier in the year, and now everything is hugely undervalued. Take a long term approach and drip feed money into quality companies and you should do very nicely in 2-5 years time.
I totally agree with you James, as you can read from my earlier comment above, one can still rely on the fact that there’s still time.