Do you invest in the stock market?

[DemoRabbit]

Do you invest? Part of a 401K? How much money do you think you've lost? Are you pulling your money out?

Share your plans, woes and worries...

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1. I don't invest in the stock market because it's gambling and I'm not stupid.

[stray cat]

where do you keep your retirement savings - money market ?

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6. Savings?

I can barely keep up with my bills.

[RB TexLa]

2. Not in North American stocks since fall of 01.

[old mark]

3. I did have investments several years ago,

some in the market in the US, but mostly in overseas funds, mainly in the Far East.

Did really well, but got out nearly 2 years ago.


mark

[DemoRabbit]

4. I added an option "not in the U.S. Market..."

[flvegan]

5. Big time, when I was a little younger. Now, not so much.

I have a 401k, but I'm not heavily divested in it because of the minute choices they gave me for where I could put my money. I'm an ethical investor now, which means it most likely will not make me rich.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

7. I pulled out a couple of months ago when the handwriting on the wall went neon.

Even though my investments were in a "Balanced" mutual fund weighted towards bonds.

[54anickel]

8. Other - unless you keep your money in a mattress or buried in the back 40 you

are exposed to the markets.

So, the more pertinent question is are you exposed to the shenanigans on Wall Street?

Thanks to the 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, you can now confidently answer YES, even if you didn't wanna be.

[DemoRabbit]

9. We're all effected...

I just thought it would be interesting to see how many of us are investing directly

[medeak]

10. my sis moved her money to Italy

mine is in cd's and commercial real estate

[frebrd]

11. Never! What little money I have....

has been in long-term, fixed-rate CD's for the last twenty years.

In 1987, when I was still working, I put a small amount of money into a (conservative) mutual fund, lost about $200 dollars and said never again. One of the best lessons I ever learned!

[dmallind]

12. No one answer

401K and mutual funds held privately are about 85/15 in equities.

I've "lost" about 6% last year.

Why inverted commas? Because it's not lost in real terms (nor is it gained either in bull markets) until I sell them. That's about 20 years off at least.

I have absolutely no doubt I will see gains in 20 years from today. It would be unprecedented if I did not. I'm not being Buffet-like in oracular wisdom in seeing a green energy bubble coming in that time, and maybe a nanotech or advanced genetic biotech bubble too. There will be recoveries and busts aplenty.

Absolutely nothing would cause me to pull out of the market at this time. Selling on a downward trend is a foolish idiocy unless you need money and have no other way of getting it.

Just like I did after 9/11 I will be freeing up some cash to invest in funds in the next few days. 10,700 is a buying opportunity.

Look at it like this. Like most investors who are working folks these days, my main vehicle is my 401K.

I pay 9% pretax (so about a 6.5% reduction in pay) into it.

My employer matches 3% one for one - a fairly bog standard benefit. Seen better. Seen worse.

This means unless I "lose" 40% or so of my stake, I actually gain because of their match (anybody who thinks we'd all get 3% raises is 401K matching laws were changed is nuts - we'd just lose the benefit). Why not take free money? Anyone who can even with great difficulty afford it should be taking advantage of matching offers.

And like 401Kers everywhere, I'm buying every pay period - essentailly dollar cost averaging for dummies. If the market's down, I buy cheap. If it's up, I buy high. Overall I'm buying at the average, so my only job is to sell above that when the time comes. Millions upon millions of us doing the same thing - a steady supply of buyers that did not exist in 1929 by the way when only 1% instead of 50%+ owned equities.


I also take 15% of my income and buy their stock at 15% less than the LOWEST price in the last 6 mos every quarter. This is essentially guaranteed 15% gain as I can sell at any time, and that's assuming I buy at the low point of that six months.

I'm at about the cusp of Roth income qualification so depending on bonuses etc I can put a few thousand each year into Roth IRAs for both myself and my wife which will generate tax free income on retirement.

[DemoRabbit]

14. Enrollment for 401K at my job is end of this month

...and you're making me think I should jump in now... LOL

[dmallind]

15. You should

If you put it all in DJIA index fund, and assuming you just put in 3% and get a 3% match, here's an (artificially simplified) scenario.

Let's say you make $50K.

You put in 3% ($1500) and your employer matches for 6% or $3k this next year. The 3% depending on your deductions actually costs you say 2.5% in take home pay or $1250

All you buy are DJIA index funds.

Price today (after a rough slide) is average for next year so based on index of 10700.

You buy $3000 worth at (again a simplified pretend number to show the math better) at $10.70 per share (1/1000 of the index).

You get 280.37 shares

For 280.37 shares to fall to the point where you would lose on your real out of pocket cost of $1250 you would have to see the shares fall to $4.46

Which means the DJIA would have to go to 4460 for you to lose.


Likely? You really think so? If so I'll buy DJIA options from you right now for a price that's TWICE that for next year.


EDITED - woops - doubled that investment once too often. Sorry - correct now.

[AlCzervik]

13. yes, we bought a certain stock 8 years ago and it's gone way, way up, 401k though---stuck on

not moving.

[TroutMaskReplica]

16. Don't Invest in Morgan or Goldman - they are crashing NOW

GS 101.88, -31.13, -23.4%)
MS 19.17, -9.53, -33.2%)

[Ikonoklast]

17. I stayed home yesterday and traded in and out of AIG all day

Made a tidy sum, by golly. First stock trades I've done in a year.

Went to cash last October, traded some commodities in the meanwhile. Thought the Big Crash would've happened by the first of this year.

[mnhtnbb]

18. Went to cash several months ago, keeping only full position in

three equities: one a biotech and the other two alternative energy stocks (solar and wind); reducing positions in a couple of mutual funds, including international. I'm sitting about 70% cash right now.

[Faux pas]

19. When I want to throw my money away, I find going to the Indian casino

is a lot more fun. I've always thought the stock market was a huge scam, just like insurance.

[camio]

20. My grandmother does.

She has a 401k and many investments in stocks. I'm not sure which/in what areas at this time - but she tells me she has lost over 100k. I'll have to ask her a bit about this.