ERD50
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Well, I think you can see the state of my thinking (or lack of) or perhaps my fear of getting in a bad/stagnant stock market.
I'll just say that the time to be worried about getting in the market is when it is UP, not so much when it is down. And boy, are we DOWN!
You have to follow your comfort zone, but you might want to get your head around the idea that your fear is out of sync with the market. That might help.
TIPS real rates may go higher, with the tremendous demand for liquidity in the world. But IMO they are definitely getting into a buying zone.
3% real goes a long way toward solving the retirement funding problem, albeit with none of the fun of the last few weeks.
ha
haha, please keep us informed - I've ignored TIPS as everyone has been saying the real returns have not looked good for a long time. My portfolio could probably stand some of these, at the right yield.
I would not be retired today if I had not invested in equities. My allocation varied from maybe 20% to 120%.
So my task now is to keep repeating to myself- No Margin For A Retired Man; I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts.
Ha
I laughed an evil laugh at that one! The only thing that beats the excitement of the adrenaline rush of seeing your leveraged investment go up, up, up - is the "excitement" of watching your leveraged investment go down, down, down... ever so quickly.
What's the old saying? Experience is the best teacher? The good thing about my painful lesson was that I learned it BEFORE I retired. I'd hate to think what I might do to myself w/o that experience.
I do dabble it in a bit from time-to-time (options can really be the same as margin). But, before I do, I force myself to do the numbers and say OUT LOUD - "if this investment goes to ZERO, where will that leave me, and am I comfortable with that?". If I cannot answer that ZERO is an acceptable risk (small % of NW), I don't hit the SUBMIT THIS ORDER button.
I might re-phrase your statement a bit - margin is for people who can consider (and are capable of) going back to work!
-ERD50