Stock Market Decline-Tests your beliefs - Have a plan and work the plan

[dex]

I've been ER for over a year and I feel less worried about this decline than when I was working.
I think it is a good test for my planning an belief in my planning.

For the record I am only 18% of my net worth (excluding home - paid off) invested in the markets. I started averaging into the markets in March and as of yesterday I am down - 6.72%

I plan to continue to average into the markets for the next 12 months - at that time I should be invested about 50% in the markets. I will decide how to handle the other 50% after that - invest more or less agressively.

What influenced my investing? I though the markets were a bit overpriced but I decided to start investing slowly. I was a bit premature.

Why averaging in. There are a couple of factors. One is that there is the concept of the 4 year cycle in stocks - 4 years of a bull and then flat to a decline - the length depends upon economic factors.
Others:
Housing - of course
Liquitity - getting tighter around the world
Unemployment has been very low - it really can only go up from here causing more bad news.
Presidential cycle - If a president is running for office there usually some sort of financial pump into the economy - G. Bush is not running so I don't expect that.

Why keep buying - I don't know when the bottom will be but I'm guessing it will be over the next twelve to 16 months. Even after that the markets will most likely grow slower than over the past 4 years.

My long term plan is to be fully invested (excluding home) with about 3 years of living expenses in short term bonds.

So, I'm feeling good - expecting lower markets as a good time to buy.

If you are worried about what is going on then you should question what part of your planning is making you unhappy.

We all have gone into the markets knowing that they can and do go down so that is no surprise.