Are you still investing?

[The Pol]

Are you? Have your contributions changed? I am buying another 400 shares of my favorite mutual fund at the close today...

News from the AP.
NEW YORK – Investors are selling stocks amid pessimism about the global economy. The Dow Jones industrial average is falling to new six-year lows.

Financial stocks led the market lower as investors are increasingly worried about the weakening banking industry and what the government is doing to stabilize it.

Disappointing fourth-quarter earnings reports from Lowe's and J.C. Penney are also providing new evidence that the recession is taking a heavy toll on U.S. businesses.

At midday, the Dow is down 121 to 7,345. The Standard & Poor's 500 index is down 13 at 766, and the Nasdaq composite index is down 8 at 1,435.

Friday's sell-off in the U.S. follows sharp declines overseas.

 

[cellardoor]

Hell yes, my wife and I are in our early/mid 20's and this market is perfect for investing every spare dime. I'm even more excited for when a year or two when we're ready to purchase our first house when prices have hopefully hit a nice low. As bad as the situation is I'm taking advantage of my youthfulness and planning for a prosperous future.

 

[Cape Brewing]

I definitely am and it's for the same reason as cellardoor... I have the appropriate investment horizon. I'm only 36 and I allocate different pools to different asset according to timing of need. My sons' 529 plans are invested pretty closely to how my and my wife's investments are structured because we both have very long investment horizons. As our boys get older, they're 529's will get more conservative as a slight faster rate then our overall portfolio but this "crash" is nothing more than a phenominal buying opportunity for folks with proper time frames.

 

[The Pol]

I agree... my 400 share purchse today would have yileded only 200 shares 12 months ago. The potiential upside for investors who are buying now is incredible. Good on ya!

 

[springer]

same investments as before but its buying a lot more.. I don't plan on retiring for at least 15 years when the house is paid off and when the wife is eligible to retire. My pension from the PD that I am collecting already gives me a good base

 

[Ridge Runner]

I'm getting into my Co's 401K next week. I put in 5% and they match 4%. I'm 39 and get started a little late but late is better than never. My dollars are going to go a lot farther in this market.

 

[CBBaron]

I'm too stupid to know better. Still putting the same 10% in my 401k distributed between several index funds. Plus another 5% in my company stock purchase plan.
Only difference is now I am holding the company stock for better times instead of dumping it immediately. Mostly for tax reasons.

I figure this is a great time to buy for those looking 10+ years out. My parents luckily were listening to a smart person and moved their retirement funds into nearly 100% bonds and fixed funds last summer. Their portfolio is down 5% in the last year and they are continuing their plans of retirement this year and next. I do think they will be cautiously buying back into the market in the near future, but they have to be much more conservative about their money at this point.

Craig

 

[Cape Brewing]

My parents luckily were listening to a smart person and moved their retirement funds into nearly 100% bonds and fixed funds last summer. Their portfolio is down 5% in the last year and they are continuing their plans of retirement this year and next.
Craig

They got sme good advice but if they were that close to retirement, they shouldn't have had much in anything but fixed income anyway.

There's not as much rocket science to this stuff as people think. Equities = aggressive. Fixed Income = safe.

(and obviously they are extremely varying degrees to each... distressed debt fixed income is very risky but that's a lesson for another time)

The longer you have to invest, the more aggressive you are and you don't even blink when the market goes up OR DOWN... that's what markets do.

As your time shortens (the closer youi get to retirement) you go more and more into fixed income.

... not rocket science. We fancy pants investment manager types like to toss out all sorts of fancy finance garble to make it sound complicated... but it's not. You don't need to know what your "efficient frontier" is or whether or not your portfolio is generating enough alpha or you're taking on too much beta... it's all bullsh!t... keep it simple and it's all easy stuff.

 

[arturo7]

I do my gambling in Vegas.

 

[NJTomatoguy]

yes, same as before-
pay yourself first has been my theory.

 

[CBBaron]

They got sme good advice but if they were that close to retirement, they shouldn't have had much in anything but fixed income anyway.

There's not as much rocket science to this stuff as people think. Equities = aggressive. Fixed Income = safe.

Yes and no. They did have a sizable percentage in equities last year because remember you are not using all of your retirement money the day you retire. Most people hope to still have a decent nest egg 20 years later. And 20years is a long term investment. However if you are drawing on an investment that is loosing 30+% a year it get real hard to make it back up. Hence the need for some stable and some aggressive investments at retirement age. In 20 years I would expect their investments to be very safe but they hope to be around too long to play it completely safe right now.

Craig

 

[nealf]

I know Dave Ramsey is wayyy too conservative for a lot of people but he has a link up on his site today which deals with just this topic.

This PDF "The Wisdom of Great Investors" has a lot of very big investing names:

http://www.daveramsey.com/redirect/media/external/26338/23572/pdf/wisdom_of_great_investors.pdf

 

[gratus fermentatio]

I can't afford to invest.

 

[zac]

I am buying everything I can get my hands on. Maxing out the employee matching at work, socking every penny I can into the market. Shares are at a low I've never seen my investing life. So what if I lost a little bit when it "crashed," now I have a whole lot more shares to go up with, which it will. Maybe in a nother 8 years I will have a decent return on my investments.

Anybody checked out land & real estate prices lately? Land is WAY down in my neck of the woods. I'm just staying a float with some of the purchases lately!


It's an excellent time to be a buyer.

 

[david_42]

I'm fully invested (mainly alternative energy and commercial real estate) and don't plan on changing anything. Not the first drop I've been through.

 

[jds]

No changes here, except that I'm buying more individual stocks than funds right now. Good companies (like GE, for example) are on sale right now.

 

[IowaHarry]

Still at it, no changes. Everything in the stock market is on sale. Buy buy buy. I rode that behotch all the way down so I am in it for the long run. It may take years to swing back but I have strong confidence it will, no matter what stoopid stuff our congress does.

what else am I gonna buy? Beer?

 

[hopdog]

All of my money, at this point, is going into the construction of my house. There has never been a better time to build. Material prices are nice and low. Plus if things go bad, my investment will be concrete... literally.