Who kept investing heavily through the great recession?

[Moemg]

I retired Jan.2008 and proceeded to lose over 30% of my portfolio . I was scared silly but talked into staying the course by some of our saner members and I am glad I did . I got back all my losses. It took a few years but I was made whole . I kept taking 4% of my year end balance and despite that my portfolio grew . Several of my friends got out when they started losing and never went back in . Last Friday when I was complaining about the market they were saying how smart they were to get out . I said nothing .It was a really scary time but in the end it is only money not your health which is worse to lose.

[Lawrencewendall]

I guess I was oblivious to the crash as I was in the process of rolling over IRA's from one broker to another. According to my records, from 1/1/08 to 12/31/10, I made 250k in purchases so I guess I wasn't that spooked.

[steelyman]

One thing I remember clearly about the ‘08-‘09 period was how fast and deep everything fell for months.

It was natural to be frozen like a “deer in the headlights”, as previously mentioned. One could easily feel helpless at times like that.

Having investments “once removed” from an itchy trigger finger (like in an employer retirement plan or IRA) helps.

[TwoByFour]

We had a FA managing a big chunk of money I came into as I was way too busy with my career to think about how to invest it. Sometime around late 2008 I noticed how far things had fallen and told the FA to sell about 30% of the portfolio, which he did. We got back into the market in spring of 2009. So, 70% of the taxable part of our portfolio rode the crash out, but 30% missed the bottom and the recovery.

Two years later I looked back on the events of 2009 and wondered what good a FA is - he did not keep me from shooting myself in the foot. So I took control of our investments at that time and got rid of the FA.

In the long run, my panic in 2008/9 did little damage. I left the 401k 100% invested and only panic-sold 1/3 of the taxable but quickly got back in. I estimate that the long term hit to our total portfolio was less than 10%. It was a good lesson for us - we learned that an FA cannot save you from yourself and we learned that yes, markets do recover.

[Lawrencewendall]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TwoByFour We had a FA managing a big chunk of money I came into as I was way too busy with my career to think about how to invest it. Sometime around late 2008 I noticed how far things had fallen and told the FA to sell about 30% of the portfolio, which he did. We got back into the market in spring of 2009. So, 70% of the taxable part of our portfolio rode the crash out, but 30% missed the bottom and the recovery. Two years later I looked back on the events of 2009 and wondered what good a FA is - he did not keep me from shooting myself in the foot. So I took control of our investments at that time and got rid of the FA. In the long run, my panic in 2008/9 did little damage. I left the 401k 100% invested and only panic-sold 1/3 of the taxable but quickly got back in. I estimate that the long term hit to our total portfolio was less than 10%. It was a good lesson for us - we learned that an FA cannot save you from yourself and we learned that yes, markets do recover.

+1

If I fail or falter, I want it to be my own fault and NOT someone else's.

[RenoJay]

During the downturn in ‘08 and ‘09, not only did my stock investments tank. My business (ie income) evaporated and my house dropped >50% in value. I took nearly everything I had and went all-in to stocks. At the bottom of the market in March ‘09, I had about 90% of total net worth in stocks, but also had huge anxiety about it. It was the right call and now net worth is many times higher than then. However, now I believe markets are way overvalued and I’ve cut down to about 15% of my net worth in stocks over the past two months.

[pjigar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pb4uski I stayed the course... technically I was a buyer since I was still making 401k contributons and those were being invested in stocks. OTOH, my AA was screaming at me to sell bonds and buy stocks since the market drop twisted my AA compared to my target AA but I could not summon the courage to do that... I was a bit like a deer in the headlights when it came to making a big move.

I sold *all* (30%) my bonds and bought stocks somewhere during the bottom of the market. DCA via 401K contributions never stopped throughout.

[VanWinkle]

I was at 65 equities at that time, and kept investing every 2 weeks just like before. I would like to say it was courage, but I really never looked at the account during the entire downturn. I did have it set on auto re-balance, so I guess you could say I bought more equities on the downturn.

[CyclingInvestor]

I had just retired in 2006, so was not investing new money, but stayed at 100% stocks thru the correction, as I have been for 25 years now. Since I was living on the dividends, and they all kept going up, there was no stress.

[6miths]

I did but mainly because it corresponded with my peak earning years and seemed like USD and US equities was a good place for a large part of the money. Both worked out and greatly aided in FIRE.

[MikeD]

We had sold near the high point prior to 2008 by guessing and luck. I kind of thought this rise can't go on forever and got out of 100% stock and into 100% cash. Then when it crashed I watched with (sort of) glee and waited until I thought it couldn't go lower. My wife and I talk a lot about it and we finally decided to go on vacation and not think about it. On one of the vacation days we decided to get back in at the next down day so we didn't have to worry anymore and just do it and get it over with. That was almost exactly the low day (Beginning of March, near my birfday, so I am remembering it that way rather than the exact date) and we made about a million dollars by accidentally timing. It was 100% luck.

I bet this thread only has the good stories in it because it would be too painful for the people who lost money to write about it. Is that what's called selection bias? (Real question, as I never understood that term.)

[mh]

I don’t know about heavily, but I kept maxing my 401k. I was fortunate enough in those years to to make too much to do a personal ira contribution. I also threw a chunk of money into Apple at that time, because I had some cash that I would not need for a good while. It was just laziness / luck that I had that extra cash though. I survived a Lay-off or two at that time. If I hadn’t, it would been a much different story.

[mh]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MikeD We had sold near the high point prior to 2008 by guessing and luck. I kind of thought this rise can't go on forever and got out of 100% stock and into 100% cash. Then when it crashed I watched with (sort of) glee and waited until I thought it couldn't go lower. My wife and I talk a lot about it and we finally decided to go on vacation and not think about it. On one of the vacation days we decided to get back in at the next down day so we didn't have to worry anymore and just do it and get it over with. That was almost exactly the low day (Beginning of March, near my birfday, so I am remembering it that way rather than the exact date) and we made about a million dollars by accidentally timing. It was 100% luck. I bet this thread only has the good stories in it because it would be too painful for the people who lost money to write about it. Is that what's called selection bias? (Real question, as I never understood that term.)

I wouldn’t bet against you [emoji16]

[Mo Money]

I did not flinch at all. I continued to max out my 401K and invested my usual monthly amounts in my taxable portfolio. The downturn was a bargain-basement sale, in my view.

[SumDay]

Ditto on the "not opening 401(k) statements". I threw the unopened envelopes in the file folder, and stopped downloading data into Quicken so I couldn't even see what was happening. People at work joked about their "201(k) plan" so I knew we had to be down 50%, which I confirmed in 2010 when I finally opened them.

We were both contributing the max to our plans which was scary, but not as scary as DH's serious health scare during that time. That kind of kept our minds off the economy.

It has made me a bit less jittery about market fluctuations, especially right now. Stay the course...

[stephenson]

Working, family ... just watched and continued to save and invest.

[SnowBound]

Kept on buying the stock index funds through 2007 - 2010. Was painful to see one 401K to go from 6 digits to 5. Actually I got spooked in 2013, took half of the other 401K and put it into TIPS (moved back to 100% equities after 6 months).

[tulak]

I kept investing, as I mentioned earlier, but I can also add a twist to that story.

In early 2008 I figured out my asset allocation. At the time, I was debating if I should dollar cost average or invest lump sum. Based on the data, I choice the latter. My timing couldn’t have been worse.

It all worked out, but without a doubt dollar cost averaging would have been a much (much) better approach.

[DrRoy]

I had 7 figures at 82% equity AA and a slightly elevated beta, so it felt like 100%. I had a lot of anxiety while riding the roller coaster. I did make a modest sell during a rebound in Nov '08 and put it back in Feb '09, but overall watched my portfolio drop by around half. It made me wonder if I could RE when I wanted. A couple years later, as values recovered and I was approaching RE, I started reducing my AA, which is now 59%. I was helped through the Great Recession bear market by "Your Money and Your Brain" by Jason Zweig.

[Bir48die]

I increased my retirement dollars in my deferred account every year starting in 2005. Was 30% of gross pay to 40% at the end. I am a market believer. This is why I could retire three years earlier than my goal