Say it! Say it! Say "I lost the nest-egg." Go on, say it!
Posted on 07/12/2012 6:35:45 AM PDT by george76
Baby boomers and others worried about the lack of money in their 401(k)s and IRAs are day trading within their retirement accounts.
Americans worried about running out of money in their golden years are trying a new investment strategy: day trading their retirement funds.
Disillusioned with the conventional buy-and-hold approach, baby boomers are anxious to improve their retirement prospects after two punishing bear markets in the last decade.
Some people are trading the mutual funds in their 401(k) plans more frequently. Others are venturing into options. And some aggressive investors have begun day trading their nest eggs — all in a bid to make up for lost time.
...
Joe Hansman, 29, who handles customer complaints at Wells Fargo, shifts money among two conservative mutual funds in his 401(k) and the banking company's own stock. He trades 10 to 15 times a month, steering money into Wells Fargo's stock when he expects it to rally for a few day.
"When I told my wife about it she was really nervous … until I educated her on what it all entails and how poorly [the 401(k)] was performing before that," Hansman said. "She's still not 100% behind it but she said, 'Just don't lose everything. If you do I'll divorce you.' "
(Excerpt) Read more at articles.latimes.com ...
Some of us don’t have much choice.
“Just don’t lose everything. If you do, I’ll divorce you.”
This is the girl who, when the Preacher said “for richer or poorer”, announced “What’s this ‘poorer’ bullshit?”
Say it! Say it! Say "I lost the nest-egg." Go on, say it!
“Big mistake. Big. Huge. I have to go shopping now.”
-Vivian, from Pretty Woman
Joe will lose it anyway, since he works right at the Koolaid factory. He should be putting it into gold and ammo...
Soon to be divorced Joe Hansman, 29, has about 40 years to go before he can access his 401k.
But he’s worried about poor returns these last few years.
Joe’s not too bright.
Having to resort to gambling on the stock market with retirement money.
He’s 29 years old, he should just ride it out. Trying to time the market isn’t very smart.
Tragically “daytrading” is gambling.
And like all gamblers, they share certain unfortunate traits.
First off, they will always talk about their wins, but never their losses.
When you add up the net gains and losses, the total returns will be less then if the kept it in a balanced mutual fund and left it alone.
They will lie to themselves that they are making money, when in fact they are losing (sort of like the recent California city bankruptcies).
They will suffer loses and then bet bigger trying to win back their losses (also known in the gamblers world as “the grind”).
And eventually they will lose it all and possibly be in debt if they used margin.
All gambling will eventually revert to the statistical mean.
Too sad.
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