Britain vote could crush 401k balances?

[Travelwanted]

Latest polls show it is very close. Odds makers still have it more likely Brexit will NOT occur.

Personally I think the market sells off more up to the vote. I bought a small short that I am betting...yes this is gambling...not investing....will go up the next few days. I will likely sell before the actual vote and take advantage of the uncertainty for some extra pocket change...hopefully. Remember, the market does not like uncertainty.

 

[MichaelB]

Wow, I didn't realize that my vote had such power.

Wa Ha Ha Ha!!

You don't get many opportunities in life to mess with so many people. In fact, now's your chance to get back at us Yanks for that dust up back in '75 (that's 1775). I say go for it, all the way, and show the world how it's done. And if global markets fall a measly 10% or so, that would be a great buying opportunity.

 

[VFK57]

It is just my personal opinion but I think if England would leave the EU, it is not only regaining control of their own policies but benefit greatly to US$ as main Global reserve currency. Currently the EU GDP (including Britain' $2.8 trillion) is very close to USA GDP and despite England having their own currency, her economy is integrated tightly and counted for the EU GDP. Then Euro and Dollar are very closely compete for main world reserve currency. Reducing EU GDP would let US$ remain as main world reserve currency in a near future.

 

[LOL!]

Reading about this looming disaster makes me really happy I rolled over my 401k and don't have to worry!

Exactly right. Now that all our 401(k) money is in IRAs we certainly don't have anything to worry about anymore.

 

[Texas Proud]

Just my opinion, and I am sure others will chime in after this.... but I think that England should leave the EU...

When I lived there in 2000, there were some rulings that the EU made that made zero sense if you lived in England...

I remember one vendor did not list food in kgs... which was a violation... and he was fined and threatened to be shut down unless he complied... there was others that I just cannot remember right now.... but they made me think 'why are they in the EU?'....

I also do not think that there are many benefits that flow to England since they are not part of the Euro... still have currency risk...

It is easy to get free trade agreements with the various countries... so trade should not be impacted in the long run....

 

[audreyh1]

Ah, but most systems now have 4 digits years so Y3K will not matter. Hint: You should prepare (NOW!) for Y10K.

Exactly!!!

 

[audreyh1]

They didn't make them switch to driving on the right side of the road!

 

[redduck]

I'm actually going to the market to buy a couple dozen more 10 gallon bottles of water like we stocked up on before Y2K--you never know when a calendar event or a currency issue is going to make us superthirsty just when the global fresh water supplies fail. I might buy a white panel van to carry them home in, too.

Quote from another thread:

Drivers of white vans have receding hairline, wear a do-rag, and have a stubble.

I assume that you already meet all three of the above prerequisites set out by target2019.

 

[Meadbh]

I think that a potential Brexit is likely to have more of an economic than a market impact, especially in Europe. I am far more concerned about the outcome of the US presidential election.

 

[imoldernu]

Early returns have the British Markets in a total turmoil... First two districts upside down from the expectations.
Looks to be a long night. Final reslts expected around breakfast time in the US on Friday.
First charts after the districts (Sunderland and New Castle) have the pound down 40%.
CSpan is showing the results live.
Current concensus is that if there is a Brexit, the inflation will go up 3 to 4%.

More exciting than US elections.

 

[Sunset]

So the sky has not fallen, everyone who sold their 401K can now buy back at higher prices.

 

[Sunset]

Early returns have the British Markets in a total turmoil... First two districts upside down from the expectations.
Looks to be a long night. Final reslts expected around breakfast time in the US on Friday.
First charts after the districts (Sunderland and New Castle) have the pound down 40%.
....

Looks like I need to plan our trip to London, going to be able to travel posh style with a 40% decline of the pound.

 

[MRG]

Ah, but most systems now have 4 digits years so Y3K will not matter. Hint: You should prepare (NOW!) for Y10K.

No, there are huge issues coming in 2044!

That's the year the mainframe(and many other systems) time of day(TOD) rolls over. The format is the number of 64/1000 of a second past midnight 1900. It's rolls around to the next epoch in 2044. As I understand it all time comes from that single source. But many applications access the TOD function, how many of those will be changed and tested? My guess is 0.

Seriously evil stuff could occur to make any virus attack seem small. I know for a fact there's issues with some financial applications that will break.

 

[meierlde]

Ah, but most systems now have 4 digits years so Y3K will not matter. Hint: You should prepare (NOW!) for Y10K.

Actually the next crisis will occur on Jan 19 2038 when the time counter on 32 bit unix machines overflows being and because numbers greater than 2^^31 are negative the date on the computer goes back to 1901. On 64 bit unix systems the wrap around date is 15:30:08 on Sunday, 4 December 292,277,026,596 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem The later date is one no one on earth will have to worry about as the earth will have been absorbed by the sun by that time and the sun become a white dwarf.

 

[RobbieB]

When that happens the solar panels on my roof should make the 1.21 gigawatts needed to to propel me back to the past.

Where I'll have to kill myself I guess. Damn.

 

[Senator]

Early returns have the British Markets in a total turmoil... First two districts upside down from the expectations.
Looks to be a long night. Final reslts expected around breakfast time in the US on Friday.
First charts after the districts (Sunderland and New Castle) have the pound down 40%.
CSpan is showing the results live.
Current concensus is that if there is a Brexit, the inflation will go up 3 to 4%.

More exciting than US elections.

This is not even a binding election. It doesn't matter the outcome. Even if Brexit passes, with 100% of the vote, Parliament can vote to stay in.

Count on a market rally when it passes one or both votes.

 

[YVRRocketSurgery]

This is not even a binding election. It doesn't matter the outcome. Even if Brexit passes, with 100% of the vote, Parliament can vote to stay in.

Count on a market rally when it passes one or both votes.

It'd be political suicide for politicians not to follow through with the referendum results. Parliament would be a gong show too considering how split even the the ruling Conservative and opposition Labour party are within their own caucuses.

 

[Meadbh]

Not to mention that a Brexit may precipitate the breakup of the U.K. Early results suggest that most of the Leave votes are coming from England, while Scotland is leaning to Remain.

 

[RobbieB]

They have whiskey to sell?

 

[Senator]

Dow Jones futures briefly saw an implied open down more than 400 points, before then recovering much of those losses. Those moves, however, occurred on extremely light volume.
US futures take a dive as Brexit vote results roll in

Get ready to buy. The dip will be short lived, if at all.

 

[Mulligan]

Looks like I need to plan our trip to London, going to be able to travel posh style with a 40% decline of the pound.

Imolder, had a sticky finger on the keyboard...It never was down 40%.... It is down between 4-5% ....Sorry, Sunset...Just a minor savings it you book now.


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[jdmorton]

Not to mention that a Brexit may precipitate the breakup of the U.K. Early results suggest that most of the Leave votes are coming from England, while Scotland is leaning to Remain.

I'm following the results on The Guardian's EU referendum results website, and as of about 10:30 PM Eastern, it does not appear that any of Scotland's local authorities have voted to leave. Of course, the City of Edinburgh with the most concentrated Scottish population that has yet to report (Glasgow with more population reported already).

A couple of other interesting points (to me, anyway):

• Nearly 71% of eligible voters cast votes in the local authorities that have reported so far (over 9.5 million votes in).
• Glad to see Boston (District) was allowed to vote - over 75% voted to leave

 

[Mulligan]

Imolder, had a sticky finger on the keyboard...It never was down 40%.... It is down between 4-5% ....Sorry, Sunset...Just a minor savings it you book now.


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Stay patient Sunset and dont book..Its down 7% now...Maybe you will get that 40% after all!


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[ESRwannabe]

Edited to avoid politics...

I'll just say, I'm happy to take a hit monetarily if that actually happens.

 

[Meadbh]

Here is a quote from the Community Rules (see link at the bottom of the page):

Partisan political commentary is not allowed in any section of the forum. Discussions about current or pending legislation or regulations that directly pertain to Early Retirement are acceptable but may be closed or removed if they wander off topic or become disruptive.

Limit discussion of politics to the “FIRE Related Political Topics” forum unless the issue is specifically pertinent to the topic at hand.