Stock market - R E L A X

I had a sad laugh last night.  Here I am calm, cool and collected when talking about the stock market.  Been there done that. Went through Black Friday 33 years ago and it all worked out over time.

So as I was filling in LAST weeks numbers on my spreadsheets I figured I'd just peek at the latest numbers, I had looked Wednesday and was fine, sad but fine.  We are now 35% stocks and 50% bonds because we are retired and it was time to get conservative so it was not SO bad.

SO . . . . .  about 9:00 last night once the numbers had been finalized for the day I called it up on the screen and . . . . . . . SHIT - I actually twitched uncontrollably for a second or too! 

DJ comes home from baby sitting after I made a few "we're fine" graphs and told her to take a peek.

I know she had peeked mid day and she said "Oh I know what it will look like"  and I said . . . "Oh I don't think you do".

 . . . . . . . . . she literally gasped, and then we both  LOL'd

SO - if we can have that reaction after having been through this once before I can't imagine people that have only watched the market for 10 or 15 years during the 11 year Obama rally are going through.

RELAX.  IT . . . WILL . . . . COME . . . BACK. 

 If you are 10+ years from retiring this should not be a concern AT ALL.  A non-issue.   If you are shorter then 10 years you should be diversified.  I know for the State there are special funds you SHOULD put your "401K" (not actually a 401K but you know) into that slowly puts you into more and more conservative funds.

When I started my State's "401K" in 1987 (before Black Friday) it was a new thing that they promised with dollar cost averaging  and I would have a million by the time I retired.  WELL . . . . . that was a lie but dollar cost averaging, where you put the same amount in every few weeks is a good plan.  ESPECIALLY now - stocks are cheap and you are buying a LOT of cheap stocks right now which will reap great rewards in the future.

SO  . . . .  I say if you are 5 to 10 years out AND dollar cost averaging and buying stocks every few weeks - this is GREAT!!!  NOW is the time when millionaires are made.   Every bad dip in the market was a joy when I was working as I knew I was buying cheap stocks that would rise in the long run.

If you are living on a 401K type thing you SHOULD have only lost maybe 15%, not the 25% the stock market has done and remember the stock market is 100% stock market, not bonds or cash. The stock market is the EXTREME.  With lowering interest rates bonds making money to offset the market.

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On a side note - remember when the GOP was floating getting rid of Social Security and telling Americans they should rule their own money and instead of giving it to the Fed - they invest it in the stock market.

WHAT COULD GO WRONG.  People with no idea about how the stock market works putting 100% into the market for retirement? . . . because it always goes up? 

Even I was a little fooled a few months ago and I have been watching the market since I was about 8 years old when my brother who wanted my mom and dad to buy stock in a weird company called Xerox (they didn't as we were poor but . . ).  Two months ago I was thinking maybe with Trump STILL in charge to get a little more aggressive but I procrastinated.  WHEW. 

Speaking of Trump and the economy and this is pure opinion.

I believe democracy is on a sine curve in so many things when if comes to left and right. 

When the GOP are in charge they are all about money and will spur the economy with tax breaks and so forth while crushing social issues and not caring about actually helping citizens in need. 

Then when the DNC is in charge "we" want to help citizens with social issues, money is secondary. Help the poor, help the under privileged, help people that need help and are suffering because the economy did not help them at all.  So the left raises taxes to help the people that need help and the economy struggles. 

and it goes back and forth.  GOP = money  DNC = helping citizens.  As long as it keeps going back and forth America does well. 

NOW comes Trump who cares absolutely nothing about the citizens but will lower taxes for any excuse which help anybody in the stock market or with retirement 401Ks and so forth. Anybody with a 401K can't hate Trump 100% . . .only 95%.

SADLY - while most GOP Presidents have a clue about protecting America from the outside this one is totally clueless about National Security and put all of his financial eggs into one basket and then dropped it.

So now we have a crumbling economy that will only get worse as we are already in a recession and Americans are in panic mode BECAUSE OF HIM AND HIS CONSTANT NEVER ENDING LIES.   
Bernie and Biden were SO MUCH BETTER at calming people in their two latest speeches.

SIDE NOTE.  Opinion #2

Our medical institution was already over packed BEFORE CORVIS-19.  In Madison, hospital beds were already at max because there is a lack of  doctors and nurses.  Entire wings are empty because of the lack of help. 

Late last night from someone that works in the ER there was a literally 40 person wait  list to get to see a Doctor in the ER.   Toothaches, sneezes, headaches and all sort of NON-ER related issues (8 tests for the virus). 

This is what I worry about with "Medicare for all".  GREAT in theory and YES - every American should have access to health care.  But America does not have the capacity at the moment. That has to be fixed FIRST. 

I 100% agree with Bernie about Medicare for all but having family in the health industry . . it will be literally impossible to do logistically unless we build more hospitals, get 100,000+ more doctors and 200,000+ more nurses in the next 4 years.  How do we do that ???  Make physicians a 2 year collage? 

It's my pragmatism that gets in the of The Revolution.  Show me exactly how. Instead of vague theory's Bernie needs to explain NOT the financial issues but the logistical issues before I jump on board.

I will VOTE blue no matter who and smile on whichever candidate is chosen (except Gabberd, the young hot one from Russia  LOL). 

I'm totally NOT anti Bernie.  Bernie and Biden were my distant 2nd and 3rd choice but I'm not AGAINST Bernie at all, I just doubt his vision can be accomplished in 4 years.

I'm more of a small step towards a goal rather then a giant leap into the unknown. 

Nuff said.

Now I need to read this over as I was just typing out of my ass.