re: For those that had money invested in 08-09

Why are people still heavily invested in equities within a decade of retirement? That's just courting disaster.

All I remember is I BEGGED my husband to move our money ... I was sick thinking about the fall. Yeah, he wished he'd listened to me. C'est la vie. We were upper 30s at the time. One time where I'd have been right for real.

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All I remember is I BEGGED my husband to move our money ... I was sick thinking about the fall. Yeah, he wished he'd listened to me. C'est la vie. We were upper 30s at the time. One time where I'd have been right for real.

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It's a dangerous game to play. I know someone who has missed out on this entire rally because they knew for certain we were headed for a double dip.

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1) For some of us, our pensions are plenty to live on and SS is always there if needed. So retirement date is not so much of an issue for savings as is RMD date.
2) Really don't need the savings for anything. Still have a good bit of time before RMD's kick in. I'm down to 10% equities now.

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That's perfectly understandable. I meant specifically those who are within ten years of needing to liquidate at least a portion of their holdings, aka the people crying about their positions being cut in half right as they were set to retire.

I was in target date funds in January of 2009 before everything crashed. I sold in March of 2009 and bought Financial and Insurance Select Funds because I thought they would have a bigger bounce back. They have and then some. I also took some liquid cash money and bought Citigroup at about $1.00/share, GE at 8.00/share, and BAC at $4.00/share. My only regret with hindsight being 20/20 is not doing more.

I also had alot of LVS at about $100/share when it was "supposed" to go to $200. It got down to below to $10 and I dollar cost averaged over the next year and finally sold for $23/share and ended up having a decent gain. Wife was pissed of course while I was in the red on that trade.

It doesn't apply to the very few investors who have insider information. Also there are some, Buffet for example, who consistently win.

There are also professional gamblers in Vegas who make a decent living, but they are few and far between.

Being a day trader and a professional gambler are synonymous in my mind and I consider it playing with fire. It is not a lifestyle I want to be a part of.

Broad based diversification across the world market through low cost indexed mutual funds will accomplish the goal with the least amount of stress and effort. When I gamble I prefer to do it in vegas.

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I'm a buy and hold/reinvest dividend investor. I will likely never sell a stock I own for at least 30 or so years.

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Being a confirmed bachelor, I wouldn't even encourage a young feller to marry a woman. But I'd certainly discourage him from marrying a stock.

There's nothing at all wrong with a buy & hold strategy (Warren Buffett is living proof of that). But over 30 years time, companies and industries will change. Some will grow and prosper. Some will fail. All I'm saying is, don't adopt any philosophy that means that you go down with the ship... if the ship should ever happen to hit an iceberg.

Just sayin'...

Oh, and to the OP: I went all in in 2009. My thinking was, if the wheels truly come off the Uncle Sam wagon, my ammo supply and dehydrated meals will probably mean more to me than however many shares of XYZ I own. And if the Great Republic makes a comeback, I should be sitting pretty. OK, so I'm not all that pretty, but I am sittin' there now. Call it what you want, but I went on faith in America and it paid off.