Dow over 28,000!

[Dtail]

All time high today. #4 this year and broke through another 100k level.

 

[HFWR]

You folks are making me nervous. Any cabbies or barbers here?

 

[Lawrencewendall]

Holy Moly. I am just under 1K shy of having a cool million! I know that many here passed that milestone a long time ago, but it's a pretty big deal for me. If I include the money in my checking, I am already over the mark, but that would be cheating

Looking at those three 9's in a row on my balance feels like the adult delayed gratification version of winning the jackpot on a slot machine

Grongrats!

 

[momoftwo]

Reading here prompted me to peek online.
Our total nest egg went from 1,022,000 shortly after I retired Sept 2019 to
1,070,000 today.
My DH thinks I'm a wizard as we never were high income.
I'll let him believe that.

 

[Retire52]

These lofty heights motivated me to finally cash out to establish 2 years of cash cushion for the inevitable correction.

 

[PatrickA5]

I'm not a big record keeper like I should have been. I remember in early 2000 going over a million. At the time most of my assets were in a private fund I had zero control over or company stock with the same restrictions. Then it crashed and stayed low till the next crash in 08. Sometime after the crash Megacorp allowed us to transfer assets out, I took the company stock and started liquidating and teaching myself how not to invest. The balance that I just found from the beginning of 2010 was 319k. That account is now 1.25MM. I guess 1.25mm can go back to 300k too.

I went through the same thing back in 2002. 100% of my company match for the prior 10 years was in company stock. You weren't allowed to sell it either. Well, you can imagine what happened to my 401K balance when the company stock went from $53 to 75 cents in 6 months. Mainly thanks to Enron. Combine that with my outside investments in WorldCom, etc and the early 2000's (to me) was much worse than 2008.

 

[W2R]

I just peeked and it is at 29,198 right now! Of course it could drop before the NYSE closes for the day. But gosh. Who would have ever thought the Dow would rise this high in our lifetimes? I didn't anyway. This has been a dream come true for me.

I know that what goes up, must come down. But I'm ready for anything so go ahead, give it to me, stock market roller coaster. I'll look you right in the eye and scream out the "W word" even as we plummet, if/when we do.

 

[Gumby]

If I own any of the DJIA stocks through a mutual fund, I'm sure it is only a very small percentage, so the level of the DJIA does not really move me.

 

[NW-Bound]

If I own any of the DJIA stocks through a mutual fund, I'm sure it is only a very small percentage, so the level of the DJIA does not really move me.

Yet, in order for the Dow Jones Industrial Index to stay relevant, its selection committee updates the 30 components from time to time to keep up with the S&P 500. They do not want the Dow 30 to deviate too far from the total market, if they want the index to represent the market.

At this point, out of 30 stocks in the Dow, I count AAPL (Apple), MSFT (Microsoft), INTC (Intel), IBM (IBM) as the tech components.

Still, I have seen that the Dow is generally more conservative than the S&P, which is less frothy than the NASDAQ. The divergence between the Dow and the NASDAQ can tell a lot about the state of the market, whether it is bullish or bearish.

 

[W2R]

I have been following the Dow for over 65 years, and I'm not about to stop now. [/grumpy mode]

I suppose that those who do not like it, can start threads referring to their preferred index?

 

[NW-Bound]

^^^ I don't care if you are grumpy, because I follow the Dow too.

In fact, as a market follower I look at all 3 indices as I said.

I described how the Dow may be more relevant than people think, even though it has only 30 stocks, in case you missed my point.

 

[Major Tom]

I'm not a big record keeper like I should have been. I remember in early 2000 going over a million.

It's not important to know on what day, what month or heck, even what year you went over a million*. What's important is that you got there - and continued onwards and upwards!


*For people who don't need a million then of course, it's not even important that you ever have it

 

[NW-Bound]

We all need a million. I have not met one who says he does not. I wanted a million very early in life, when I just learned to count.

In fact, when you have one, you will like to have two, and three, and...


PS. By the way, I am sure you are a milionaire today without having to count your checking account.

By holding mostly stocks and ETFs and not having too much in MFs, I know reasonably well my account balances at market close, and the game is to guess at the last few dollars when the MFs start to report in about 2 hours.

 

[Major Tom]

We all need a million. I have not met one who says he does not. I wanted a million very early in life, when I just learned to count.

Well, there is that, of course! I remember, fairly early in my working career, spending many hours calculating the potential growth of my savings over my lifetime, at various rates of interest. A million was always the magical milestone. A cool million. I suppose that several decades ago, that figure sat in far more rarified air than it does today. Perhaps in the far off future, it won't sound any more enticing than uttering the phrase, "A couple of hundred". For the time being though, it still retains a fair degree of allure.

In fact, when you have one, you will like to have two, and three, and...

5M feels like the next significant milestone, though I may never reach that. 2M is a mere doubling of my money. See? There I go, becoming nonchalant about money. A guy gets a million dollars and, suddenly, it's no big deal

PS - thank you, Lawrencewendall, W2R, and Robbie B. Looking forward to blowing that dough

 

[Golden sunsets]

If I own any of the DJIA stocks through a mutual fund, I'm sure it is only a very small percentage, so the level of the DJIA does not really move me.

So true. We are all so fixated on the Dow, when for us it is 1) S&P (IVV), 2) Russell (IJR), 3) Foreign Large (VEA), 4) Foreign Small(SCZ) and to a lesser extent. VWO, VNQ and PRNEX. I check the S&P when I want a quick touchstone for what is happening to our portfolio.

Of course most of the time the DOW and the S&P are usually in sync.

 

[NW-Bound]

5M feels like the next significant milestone, though I may never reach that. 2M is a mere doubling of my money.

See? There I go, becoming nonchalant about money. A guy gets a million dollars and, suddenly, it's no big deal

I am never nonchalant about money. Even $100K is still a lot of money to me, although I have come close to "losing" that much in a single day.

When is a million no big deal to me? I guess if some guy has $100M, then he can gain or lose $1M in a single day. Oh, but then it may knock him off the "centimillionaire status". That can hurt!


PS. I do not worship money, but I respect it. It's not because of what I can do if I have a lot of it, but more because of how much misery I have seen people suffer for not having a fraction of what I am fortunate to possess.

“Money does not buy you happiness, but lack of money certainly buys you misery.” ― Daniel Kahneman

 

[Gumby]

So true. We are all so fixated on the Dow, when for us it is 1) S&P (IVV), 2) Russell (IJR), 3) Foreign Large (VEA), 4) Foreign Small(SCZ) and to a lesser extent. VWO, VNQ and PRNEX. I check the S&P when I want a quick touchstone for what is happening to our portfolio.

Of course most of the time the DOW and the S&P are usually in sync.

Certainly the Dow is intended to be a representative sample and it has long been the touchstone for those who follow the market. So I do understand the euphoria and don't intend to denigrate it at all. For me, however, the single most important number is the value of my own portfolio, which I know every night after about 6:30 pm Eastern; I can actually spend that if I want. The majority of the time that number moves proportionally to the S&P 500, but most assuredly not always.

 

[NW-Bound]

I am not an indexer, but try to stay somewhat diversified although I am more concentrated on a few sectors. Yet, my stash has some decent correlation to the market. Usually on a day when the indices go up, I also go up and vice versa. One day, I should sit down and compute its beta.

When there's a big divergence, for example when the indices go up 1% and I am only up 0.25%, it is definitely something to try to understand. Ah, today the biotech sector takes it on the chin, or the semiconductor or energy gets it on the temple. And should I be worried about that? What is the cause? Somebody tweeted something?

It is interesting to me to watch intraday, like a boxing game which I stopped watching long ago. And contrary to a sport game, this market game does not end. Next day, it may just reverse. The only way a company is out of the game is when it goes bankrupt, and I think I have learned a bit about avoiding these.

 

[street]

I am never nonchalant about money. Even $100K is still a lot of money to me, although I have come close to "losing" that much in a single day.

When is a million no big deal to me? I guess if some guy has $100M, then he can gain or lose $1M in a single day. Oh, but then it may knock him off the "centimillionaire status". That can hurt!


PS. I do not worship money, but I respect it. It's not because of what I can do if I have a lot of it, but more because of how much misery I have seen people suffer for not having a fraction of what I am fortunate to possess.

“Money does not buy you happiness, but lack of money certainly buys you misery.” ― Daniel Kahneman

I always respect your way of thinking and how you translate it to words. I'm not good at that but I always seem to mimic your thoughts and words you write. Thanks
I don't keep track of daily ups and downs of what I have but when you talked about losing ~100k a day I had to see if I had any numbers I could relate to that time frame of one day to the next. The closest I could come to time frame was a 5 day difference and I seen a ~250K loss from 1 day to the 5th day I recorded my numbers but not from nne day to the next day. I generally don't even think about recording anything other then at end of month. I will say I only have done recording of numbers in the last 3 years. Prior I have absolutely no idea.

I also believe and agree with the quote from Daniel Kahneman.

 

[HFWR]

I can’t say, on any particular day, that I could tell you what the level of the Dow, SP500, or NASDAQ is. I do note them, as it were, because CNBC is one of the news apps I check daily. But intervals of 1000 are only around 3.5% at present, so nothing to sneeze at, but only moderately noteworthy in the grand scheme.

I am only slightly below my all-time nominal high, even after this year’s withdrawal.

 

[Dog]

Congratulations Major Tom. I’ve been a member here for a while, but rarely comment. Couldn’t pass up the opportunity to congratulate you though. That’s a memorable milestone. The past 12 months have been very, very good. Almost unbelievably so, but no complaints [emoji6]

 

[W2R]

And now that today's figures have come in, yet another all time high for me, even higher than yesterday.... Oh, and also for the Dow, of course, closing at 29,298.

 

[NW-Bound]

"Money, money, money
Must be funny
In the rich man's world

Money, money, money
Always sunny
In the rich man's world" - ABBA

I also believe and agree with the quote from Daniel Kahneman.

Not only ourselves, but I think many posters here are of the type like us who look at money primarily as a way to avoid misery.

And when people have enough to be reasonably certain to be spared of that fate, they think of using money to "buy happiness". Over the years, quite a few posters have started threads on that subject, on how to spend money to be happier.

I do think spending more will get you a bit happier, but I get to my point of diminishing return fairly quickly. Spending a lot more will not get me much happiness, and I know myself.

I am still wary of miseries, and the miseries that I think about is not something money can solve.

 

[tmm99]

And now that today's figures have come in, yet another all time high for me, even higher than yesterday.... Oh, and also for the Dow, of course, closing at 29,298.

This is insane!!! But in a good way

 

[CardsFan]

Not only ourselves, but I think many posters here are of the type like us who look at money primarily as a way to avoid misery.

And when people have enough to be reasonably certain to be spared of that fate, they think of using money to "buy happiness". Over the years, quite a few posters have started threads on that subject, on how to spend money to be happier.

I do think spending more will get you a bit happier, but I get to my point of diminishing return fairly quickly. Spending a lot more will not get me much happiness, and I know myself.

I am still wary of miseries, and the miseries that I think about is not something money can solve.

Very true words. Avoiding misery (or even just discomfort) is the primary concern. After that, we spend on simple pleasures and vacations. Beyond that, we have no desires for a grand home or exotic trips. Also, the comfort of knowing that if one, or both, of us needs assisted living or skilled nursing care, we have it covered, is comforting.