How bad a hit did you take this week ?

[HFWR]

Still ahead of 01/01/2011, though not by much... Party on!

[packrat44]

[rkser]

- In month of August so far lost - 5.74% of the portfolio &
- In year 2011 so far lost - 1.6% of the portfolio

Portfolio is about 50/50, funny as I try to keep the age in Bonds and was about to sell some stocks in a day or two to get to Stocks 45 / Bonds 55 & was thinking of the Cap Gains Taxes, when I took this hit. Oh well, will sit tight & hopefully things will be fine by the year end.

I am at a point, the need to take the risk is quite less as I can do quite well with bonds with a yearly return of 3 to 4 % but does hurt some when the money is lost. Interesting that the Stocks for the decade have hardly inched any, and a diversified Bonds Portfolio has done much better.

We are looking into retirement in 5 to 10 yrs, and realize that stocks can easily be around 30 to 35% of the Portfolio during those years. But during each of these Market Crashes, Corrections, recessions or what have you, I did not sell any stocks & law & behold every time the market came up within a year or two.

I think for me,the glaring lesson to take away from this is as soon as the AA gets more towards stocks sell them & realize the profits, pay the taxes (All my stocks are in Taxable) & get into cash or Tax Exempt Short term Bonds.

Looking back though I would not change a thing & will do the same thing again i.e invest in the Index Market either stocks or bonds, as talking for myself here, there is no other place I can put my savings for retirement. I am not into nor am skilled enough or have any time or inclination for any part time business / real estate / day trading / individual stock research to invest/ currency trading or invest in snake oil farms. The couch, arm chair and a lap top for index investing is my thing & will keep seeing these portfolio up and downs .

I hope this downturn will not amount to anything to any of us if we do not sell, regards.

[easysurfer]

Down about 5% this past week. But I tell myself, it's only a paper loss.

Looking forward to when it's rebalancing time if my percentages start to drift.

[kumquat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rustward How much are you worth?

DW would say not much.

Oh, you meant NW, the first digit is a 4.

[njonge01]

I'm not retired yet. I have a very aggressive portfolio. From Monday, I am down about 13% but still up 8% for the year. So... it hurts. I've made a few buy mistakes on the drop... but I haven't made any sell mistakes. Still confident in my individual holdings. Just hope our country doesn't get too much in the way of the businesses trying to make money here.

[Dawg52]

Quote:

Originally Posted by frayne Don't know, don't care and ain't looking, just a bump on the road is all.

Pretty much the same. I do care, but I haven't looked. It shouldn't be too bad though as I have a pretty conservative mix.

[Brett_Cameron]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kumquat DW would say not much. ....

down less than a percent for the year.

[oldtrig]

Quote:

Originally Posted by frayne Don't know, don't care and ain't looking, just a bump on the road is all.

I find it hard to believe that someone would not care if they lost money. I think its more than a bump in the road. The country is in really sad shape. It will take some time before we recover. This is not something that started yesterday.

[frayne]

Quote:

Originally Posted by oldtrig I find it hard to believe that someone would not care if they lost money. I think its more than a bump in the road. The country is in really sad shape. It will take some time before we recover. This is not something that started yesterday.

True but I have little to no control over the events that shape the market ups and downs, so I really don't worry about it. I don't like losing money any more than the next guy but I'm sure not going to let it keep me awake at night. I have a plan and a diverse portfolio, if things go bad and stay bad for a long period of time (3-5 years), then I might be concerned but as of right now, don't know how much I am down and don't care, I'm staying the course and not doing some stupid emotional kneejerk reaction that I would surely regret later down the line. Been through worse and as I said, just a bump in the road. My two cents and YMMV.

[oldtrig]

If you lose to much then get a golf game that you can win
I see that you like to play. I have been at it for 40 years and still play today. Down to a 7 handicap and hope to get it lower. The young guns still play me and most I can beat. Good luck . Tom

[frayne]

At 60 my golf game has gone south never to return to the days of the three hundred yard drives (counting roll of course), short game still pretty decent. Actually just don't have the passion for the game I once had due to the inability to play the way I used to. But I still have many other hobbies to take up the slack.

[Aeowyn]

Down 7% last week, down 3% for the year, up 10% for the last 12 months. Currently moving some money from cash/bond funds to stock funds.

[Spanky]

Our YTD is in the red - bummer.

[crispus]

I know that I am down for the year. I am going to exclude my investments from my mint account, so I won't have to look at the carnage daily. My current mix is 45/55. I have my investments all in index funds. I think it is better for my mental health not to focus on the day to day swings, and just look quarterly or half yearly. Meanwhile I will try to keep my burn rate as low as possible.

[GregLee]

YTD is down 8.3%.

[dtbach]

Quote:

Originally Posted by novaman I'm sure none of us took as big a hit as Slim.... Slim Loses $6.7 Billion This Week as Mexican Holdings Fall - Bloomberg

Who cares about a "lost a million" club?? Looks like Slim is a member of the "lost billions club" LOL

[East Texas]

We moved everything over to USAA last year in order to quit worrying about the market. We came in a little late on the IRAs and only got a 4% guaranteed rate and a 2% bonus.

At least I can sleep at night.... priceless....

For those of you following the S&P downgrade USAA's response to S&P downgrade

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by East Texas We moved everything over to USAA last year in order to quit worrying about the market. We came in a little late on the IRAs and only got a 4% guaranteed rate and a 2% bonus. At least I can sleep at night.... priceless....

Plus you get gloating rights on days like today, eh?

[freebird5825]

Quote:

Originally Posted by freebird5825 My Aug 2 response to YTD Performance Poll thread: 5.36 Total Return YTD according to M* portfolio manager AA 31/63/6 As of Friday Aug 5, still hanging tough at 3.87% total return YTD per M* portfolio manager. AA shifted slightly to 28/66/6. No big deal, it will eventually readjust itself back to my desired target of roughly 35/60/5. No active rebalancing is planned.

1.88% Total Return per M* portfolio manager as of Aug 8
AA now at 27/67/6, no intervention on my part

Tough market even for Miss Chicken Feathers