Any other retirees watching their future go down the drain?

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Hagoth
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Any other retirees watching their future go down the drain?

Post by Hagoth » Thu Mar 12, 2020 7:55 am

I retired early to return to college. I have sacrificed my whole life and carefully tucked away my winter nuts because I worked in an industry that doesn't do pensions, so most of my retirement is in the market in one form or another. And it's evaporating quickly. I was just feeling like I was finally back on track from the 2008 crisis, mostly because I continued working and putting aside as much as possible. Some voices say "pull it out now!" Others say, "no, selling low is the worst thing you can do."

Most of this damage was due to knee-jerk reactions of the market before there were many real consequences from the pandemic. Anybody with a seer stone want to speculate about what will happen if industry and services grind to a stop because everyone has to stay home for weeks/months/a year?

Interesting that the church made such a huge deal of food storage for as long as I can remember, but then stopped stressing it post Cold War.
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RubinHighlander
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Re: Any other retirees watching their future go down the drain?

Post by RubinHighlander » Thu Mar 12, 2020 1:55 pm

I'm still recovering from my divorce 15 years ago and from a year of unemployment during the last bust. We've been kicked in the financial nuts so many times I can't count all the broken shells on the floor, including paying thousands in additional taxes the past two years. We've lost all but one of our kid deductions and unable to itemize because of tax changes. I've been maxing out my 401k and HSA contributions, still doesn't seem to be enough. I do still have a year of good quality dehydrated food storage that's less than half way through it's 25 year shelf life I'd be happy to share with my tapir riding friends.
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Hagoth
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Re: Any other retirees watching their future go down the drain?

Post by Hagoth » Thu Mar 12, 2020 3:33 pm

RubinHighlander wrote:
Thu Mar 12, 2020 1:55 pm
I'm still recovering from my divorce 15 years ago and from a year of unemployment during the last bust. We've been kicked in the financial nuts so many times I can't count all the broken shells on the floor, including paying thousands in additional taxes the past two years. We've lost all but one of our kid deductions and unable to itemize because of tax changes. I've been maxing out my 401k and HSA contributions, still doesn't seem to be enough. I do still have a year of good quality dehydrated food storage that's less than half way through it's 25 year shelf life I'd be happy to share with my tapir riding friends.
Oh, I've got plenty of that too! I was in a stake where the local Perma Pak dealer donated a bunch of that stuff to the scouts, so that's what they ate for their summer camp. They got so sick from diarrhea they had to call in a rescue response team to carry some of them out.

I'm far from being in danger of starvation and I'm sure I'll be just fine in the long run, it's just frustrating to think of all of the great things I could have done with the money that is going down the drain. If that's not enough, I keep getting emails from my son who works in venture capital saying, "if you'd listened to me and got out of the stock market when I told you to..."
“The easy confidence with which I know another man's religion is folly teaches me to suspect that my own is also.” -Mark Twain

Jesus: "The Kingdom of God is within you." The Buddha: "Be your own light."

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moksha
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Re: Any other retirees watching their future go down the drain?

Post by moksha » Thu Mar 12, 2020 5:28 pm

Usually what goes down in the stock market comes back up eventually, I think.
Good faith does not require evidence, but it also does not turn a blind eye to that evidence. Otherwise, it becomes misplaced faith.
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1smartdodog
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Re: Any other retirees watching their future go down the drain?

Post by 1smartdodog » Thu Mar 12, 2020 8:54 pm

We are all in the same boat. Not much you can do. It will come back to some degree.

So much unnecessary panic right now.


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Thoughtful
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Re: Any other retirees watching their future go down the drain?

Post by Thoughtful » Thu Mar 12, 2020 9:38 pm

We lost a lot 2008-2013.

Working on a financial deal now that will hopefully at least help stop the residual effects of that loss. Assuming this panic doesn't stall that.

Spouseman is undervalued and unchallenged at work, which makes me feel uneasy.

Watching our retirement funds lose. We have years to recover, supposedly. But it seems like if this keeps happening we will never actually get ahead.

People are saying disease related market crashes bounce back within 6 months?

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Hagoth
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Re: Any other retirees watching their future go down the drain?

Post by Hagoth » Sun Mar 15, 2020 7:47 am

Blashyrkh wrote:
Sat Mar 14, 2020 5:12 pm
Well, jump in the life raft like the rest of us. I was very close to retiring until a heart condition sent those dreams down the drain. Now instead of enjoying my later years I am working two jobs and praying for the grim reapers return as thats the only time I will be able to stop.
Well, that sucks Blashyrkh! I feel like most of us are in a holding pattern with fingers crossed until something like that happens to someone in our family. Maybe if our president hugs enough flags the needs of his people will just take care of themselves.

Hang in there and take care of yourself!
“The easy confidence with which I know another man's religion is folly teaches me to suspect that my own is also.” -Mark Twain

Jesus: "The Kingdom of God is within you." The Buddha: "Be your own light."

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nibbler
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Re: Any other retirees watching their future go down the drain?

Post by nibbler » Thu Mar 19, 2020 4:34 am

Thoughtful wrote:
Thu Mar 12, 2020 9:38 pm
People are saying disease related market crashes bounce back within 6 months?
I don't know anything about markets but when the dow was on its way to 30K a lot of it felt like smoke and mirrors. There was some actual growth in there, but not enough real growth to sustain the markets at that level. I mean, if things were so great in the march up to 30K why were the feds so concerned that they were constantly slashing interest rates, something usually reserved for priming a bad economy? In short, at 30K the markets were probably over-valued.

I wish I had gotten out a year or so ago. Oh well.

Nothing is permanent. Eventually the pandemic will be in the rear view. It's hard to say how long it will take markets to get back to normal but I think there's some long overdue market correction mixed in with all of this market panic. It may take 6 months to recover to a degree but it could take several years to get back to where things were just a month ago.
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A New Name
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Re: Any other retirees watching their future go down the drain?

Post by A New Name » Thu Mar 19, 2020 9:08 am

Not to brag, but three years ago when trump was elected, I took all my retirement money out of the S&P 500 (where it had been for 30 years) and moved it to gov securities that earn 2-3% a year, but can never go negative. I've been second guessing my move over this past three years as the market was up 20%, while my 401 was only up 6%. Now I'll looking smart! Not as smart as if I'd moved it a few months ago instead of 3 years ago, but I'l take the win.

I'm about 2 years from retirement.

Thoughtful
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Re: Any other retirees watching their future go down the drain?

Post by Thoughtful » Fri Mar 20, 2020 7:39 am

nibbler wrote:
Thu Mar 19, 2020 4:34 am
Thoughtful wrote:
Thu Mar 12, 2020 9:38 pm
People are saying disease related market crashes bounce back within 6 months?
I don't know anything about markets but when the dow was on its way to 30K a lot of it felt like smoke and mirrors. There was some actual growth in there, but not enough real growth to sustain the markets at that level. I mean, if things were so great in the march up to 30K why were the feds so concerned that they were constantly slashing interest rates, something usually reserved for priming a bad economy? In short, at 30K the markets were probably over-valued.

I wish I had gotten out a year or so ago. Oh well.

Nothing is permanent. Eventually the pandemic will be in the rear view. It's hard to say how long it will take markets to get back to normal but I think there's some long overdue market correction mixed in with all of this market panic. It may take 6 months to recover to a degree but it could take several years to get back to where things were just a month ago.
I agree with you that the market was over inflated. I've been working to sell a home in oil country so watching in real time for the last four years as Trump manipulates the markets. I think a correction was due, but hopefully the disease portion bounces back quickly and the rest stabilizes on a healthier, more accurate scenario.

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Hagoth
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Re: Any other retirees watching their future go down the drain?

Post by Hagoth » Fri Mar 20, 2020 11:43 am

nibbler wrote:
Thu Mar 19, 2020 4:34 am
I wish I had gotten out a year or so ago. Oh well.
Yeah, my son kept warning me that it was a bubble for at least the past year. I did pull out a lot of my stock. So now I have something to feel good about regardless of which way it goes! Hopefully I can time it well to plug it back in at some point, when/if it makes sense. My financial planner says I'm stupid to miss the first few days of the recovery. I said, "do you think a retired person should be vulnerable enough to see 1/8 of their wealth vanish in one day?" A couple of days later he admitted that it may work out better for me this way.

Based on past experience, these things fall fast and crawl back very slowly. In '87 I had everything in bonds and sailed through it untouched. In '08 I had a lot of stocks and took a severe beating. This time I'm trying to take a middle-ground approach.

ETA: changed '87 stocks to bonds, otherwise nothing I said made sense!
“The easy confidence with which I know another man's religion is folly teaches me to suspect that my own is also.” -Mark Twain

Jesus: "The Kingdom of God is within you." The Buddha: "Be your own light."

Thoughtful
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Re: Any other retirees watching their future go down the drain?

Post by Thoughtful » Thu Mar 26, 2020 9:03 am

Hagoth wrote:
Fri Mar 20, 2020 11:43 am
nibbler wrote:
Thu Mar 19, 2020 4:34 am
I wish I had gotten out a year or so ago. Oh well.
Yeah, my son kept warning me that it was a bubble for at least the past year. I did pull out a lot of my stock. So now I have something to feel good about regardless of which way it goes! Hopefully I can time it well to plug it back in at some point, when/if it makes sense. My financial planner says I'm stupid to miss the first few days of the recovery. I said, "do you think a retired person should be vulnerable enough to see 1/8 of their wealth vanish in one day?" A couple of days later he admitted that it may work out better for me this way.

Based on past experience, these things fall fast and crawl back very slowly. In '87 I had everything in stocks and sailed through it untouched. In '08 I had a lot of stocks and took a severe beating. This time I'm trying to take a middle-ground approach.
I think the knife is still falling. May or June may be better.

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