Just curious ????

[frayne]

How long have you been in the game ? Reading some posts about market down turns and such got me thinking about how I never really get all that concerned when the market takes a dump or goes on a really good run. So here is my question when and how long have you been investing in either stocks or mutual funds with your own money, not something given or inherited ?

Myself, I started investing in earnest about 1974 so I've got 40+ years watching the gyrations. I guess being somewhat long in the tooth minimizes the gut wrenching that some people seem to suffer any time the market swings.

What say you ?

 

[Taxman59]

Parents were in the market all during my school years (GF (grandfather, I wish it was a girlfriend!) gave stock which paid for my private school, so we followed the market). I got involved in the early 80s, and have been a watching the market rise faster than my account, and fall a lot further than my account for 35 years.

 

[easysurfer]

Since the late 80's.

 

[CyclingInvestor]

401K mutual funds since 1983, a few stocks and bonds since 1984, all-in stocks since 1993.

 

[Car-Guy]

The best I can recall, I bought my first stock back in the mid 70's. (Probably 1976) I think the broker fees were almost as much as the stock.

 

[REWahoo]

Purchased my first mutual fund in 1967, a half century ago.

 

[Golden sunsets]

We have been investing since the early 70's. At that time investments consisted of putting $2,000 into an IRA and taxable CD's. We graduated to treasuries sometime in the 80's. I think we started a brokerage account in the early 80's as well. The big change occurred when 401K's were introduced. Most of our 401K's were in mutual funds. I recall the big drop in our bond funds in the late 80's. Another major change occurred when bank IRA's could be rolled over into self directed brokerage IRA's. I don't remember how much we had in the market during the .com bust. At that point we just kept investing. But I really remember the 07-09 recession. I recall the sick feeling and also remember "not opening" our brokerage statements. For some crazy reason we picked 3/9/09 to rebalance into equities. That day turned out to be the lowest that the markets went.

In retrospect it was a good test of our resolve and we did prove to ourselves that we can stick to our investment policy.


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

 

[joeea]

I guess being somewhat long in the tooth minimizes the gut wrenching that some people seem to suffer any time the market swings.

Agreed.

If you've never experienced a correction, or recession, or high-inflation period, they can all seem overwhelming. You could become nervous and overwhelmed enough to find a way to avoid them at all costs (drop out of the market).

But with enough years behind you, you can realize that all of life happens in waves. Not all years are going to be good. Not all years are going to be bad. We can all manage to get through them. I've had investments since the mid-70s (although I seldom paid much attention to them in those days).

I remember mortgage rates in the mid-teens. I remember inflation so high that I had to change jobs (and get a big raise) just to stay even. I remember when pensions ceased to exist in my field. I remember my 401k dropping by a huge number. I remember doing a bunch of things that were, in hindsight, mistakes.

But I remember doing what I needed to do each time to get by. I refinanced my mortgage several times to get the rates down. I switched jobs when I had to. And I stayed in the market through the recent recession and was able to take advantage of the recent 9+ year bull market.

In the end, it's all worked out great! Financial independence is a great feeling after all these years.

 

[canuck5]

Spring of 1987 ........ ouch!

 

[UnrealizedPotential]

I invested in my first mutual fund in 1995. As I remember it the stock market was going gang busters that year. I think I invested in August so I did miss a lot of the gains plus it was only 10k I invested. The 2000-2002 bear market didn't hurt me that much because I had relatively little invested then.

But the 2008-2009 bear market hit me pretty hard. I never really lost anything because I held on until the market recovered but I will admit it took a long time to get back to where I was in 2007.

I am better positioned nowadays for a downturn. I admit having only 40% stocks, it is slow going on the upside, but when the market goes down I will be better positioned than I have been in the past.

 

[mrfeh]

Early 90s...maybe 1993.

 

[Big_Hitter]

Since the late 80's.

same

 

[Dawg52]

Graduated from college in 1976 and can't remember saving much with my first job. Bought a car so was paying for that and spent money on fun stuff. Mutual fund investing started in the early 80's.

 

[MRG]

In 1984 I started at Megacorp. We were given profit sharing in the form of a fund that Megacorp paid all fees on. We also did IT for many financial services companies and their volumes were sometimes challenging. I still recall a SR VP coming to the floor on black Monday to warn us about volume spikes. He sure was right.

Saw many changes over the years....

 

[Onward]

Started in 1995. Woke up to indexing in about 2001.

 

[Huston55]

Started investing in 401k as soon as eligible (early 1987); had small IRA before that but, very small $$$.

I still remember a work dinner on Black Monday, where all the other employees were much older than me (in their 50s+). All they talked about all night was the market and how much they’d lost that day; the anxiety on their faces & in their voices was visceral. I had to wait until 2001 for the first crash that I felt.

 

[NgineER]

Small potatoes in late 90’s, more in grad school in 2005, didn’t like the 2008-2009 melt down but did not have much invested. 10x invested since that crash, so it would hurt much more now. But still have about ten more years before pulling the plug, so planning to stay the course. Would love to see another 10x, but not going to happen...

 

[IMATERP]

Since the late 80's.

Me 2!

 

[PatrickA5]

401K started in 1988. We had profit sharing plans prior to that, but I can't remember if they had any stocks. I don't recall being too upset during the 1987 crash, so I doubt we had much in stocks at that time.

Did a little day-trading during 1999-2001, then lost all of that in the tech crash. Had enough capital loss carry overs to last a decade.

Lost most of my 401K in 2002 when my company's stock (match) went from $52 to 50 cents in less than 3 months due to the Enron debacle. The company wouldn't let us sell any company stock until it got to around $1 a share at which point they figured they'd get sued if they didn't let us get out before $0 (which they did).

Slowly recovered from 2003 - 2007, then 2008 happened. Bought like crazy from 2008-2015. Started taking out more than putting in starting in 2016.

 

[brett]

Since the eighties. Played the long game. Ups and downs. Stayed put during the downs in order to take advantage of the up markets.

 

[braumeister]

While in college, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith (as they were known at the time) offered free investing classes at their office in the Wall Street area. It was just a subway ride away, so I eagerly attended and learned a ton about all aspects of the stock market. I also had a friend who w*rked in the back office of another broker, so I got "insider" tidbits as well. I found it all utterly fascinating and wished I had more than two nickels to rub together so I could try my luck.

Some years after graduation, I finally had a bit of spare cash and started investing conservatively (began with good dividend-paying utilities). That was in the early 70s. Became somewhat less conservative over time, but never succumbed to the irrational exuberance, so doing fairly well in the long run.

 

[GrayHare]

About 40 years. I still have an investment account dating from that time. The original firm has been merged into another but it's otherwise the same account.

 

[HFWR]

Late 80s, after the giant hole where the money (aka DW) went left...

 

[VanWinkle]

Mid 70's for me with Washington Mutual as first Mutual fund investment.

 

[Moemg]

Mid eighties