Posted on 12/24/2018 3:52:48 PM PST by conservative98
Our money was in the stock market for 40 years while we were working and investing. And in less than a month we lost half of it.
We had already retired and didn't not have any way to make up our loss of principal.
We're both in our 70s. We don't have another 40 years left to play the game again.
And I call BS on your claim that investing is not the same as gambling.
Whether you lose your money in the stock market or whatever "investment" you want to pick, or you lose your money playing poker, you still lose your money. The outcome can be the same.
“And I call BS on your claim that investing is not the same as gambling.”
With gambling you win or lose 100% of your money. You never lose 100% of your money if diversify your investments. People that say that know nothing about investing.
Even in a 2008 crash scenario at retirement in your age range you should have had almost half your money in cash or liquid investments to live on while the stock portion comes back. Liquidating stocks at a market low is awful. Sorry to hear that you did that. That was a hue mistake.
It was not a "huge mistake" to take all of our principal out of the market and put it in safe harbor. We had 8 rental homes, some mutual funds, gold and silver and cash when we retired. We live off of our retirement plans and social security incomes. We have since sold the four of the rentals and made back a portion of the money we lost in the stock market.
But I'm not interested making money in volatile equities. Too risky for us.
We live quite comfortably on our cattle ranch without worrying that our nest egg is secure or at risk. We still own four homes free and clear, have no debt and plenty of cash in the bank.
We don't need more money. We just need to preserve what we have left after the drop in the stock market wiped out 30+ years of our hard-earned savings in one month.
Never again.
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