jollystomper
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2012
- Messages
- 6,188
It did not spoil me, but because our AA did not have me losing as much as the markets were down, and we were on the tail end of college expenses and were growing our savings accumulation, we were not as impacted. We chose to ride it out.
However it did make me think about what if it happened when I no longer had a good salary and high savings rate to fall back on. The result is, with RE on the near horizon, our AA is more conservative now than it was then, and we have enough in cash and the stable value bond fund in my 401K that, with my pension, would not require us to touch equities for 5-7 years (and in theory could no require us to touch equities at all if we lowered our planned retirement expenses).
I look at the long run. Even at the lowest drop in February our equities were still 4 times what they were at the 2009 low, our cash is close to twice as much, and our total debt is close to half. The markets would almost have to return to the 2009 level to cause us real concern.
It did impact my personal view of real estate. Many here are doing great with real estate investing, and if you are, more power to you. But that time taught me that I did not have to stomach to go through what I saw so many friends and family who have over leveraged their personal and investment real estate and got smacked badly when things tanked. That further convinced me to view our home as a place to live, and nothing else.
However it did make me think about what if it happened when I no longer had a good salary and high savings rate to fall back on. The result is, with RE on the near horizon, our AA is more conservative now than it was then, and we have enough in cash and the stable value bond fund in my 401K that, with my pension, would not require us to touch equities for 5-7 years (and in theory could no require us to touch equities at all if we lowered our planned retirement expenses).
I look at the long run. Even at the lowest drop in February our equities were still 4 times what they were at the 2009 low, our cash is close to twice as much, and our total debt is close to half. The markets would almost have to return to the 2009 level to cause us real concern.
It did impact my personal view of real estate. Many here are doing great with real estate investing, and if you are, more power to you. But that time taught me that I did not have to stomach to go through what I saw so many friends and family who have over leveraged their personal and investment real estate and got smacked badly when things tanked. That further convinced me to view our home as a place to live, and nothing else.
