Is anyone staying the course?

[Major Tom]

Wow! With all the threads I have been seeing with this pandemic, it seems a lot have sold or got out of markets. I am surprised by the people bailing from the markets.

Where are you seeing these threads, street? In these forums, or in other places as well?

I think the thing to remember is that all the people who are doing very little, or nothing, with their investments are not posting about it because, well, from their point of view, there is nothing to report. I haven't logged into my investment account and checked my balances since before the downturn began. In fact, I only have the vaguest idea how far the market indices are from the top. The last time I checked, my AA was somewhere in the region of 65/32/3. I only have a rough idea of how much money I have in my portfolio, and that's OK with me.

If this all sounds very cavalier of me, that's not the intent. It's simply that -


1) Some years ago, I decided roughly what I wanted my AA to be.

2) I also decided along the way that I was only going to rebalance if my AA veered wildly from the target.

3) I don't really like trading in my account, so I do it as little as possible. I usually only do it at the end of each year, when I sell whatever I need in order to generate my income for the next year.


I just don't think about my investments a lot. I've been concentrating on my hobbies of short wave listening, ham radio, fiddling around with my camper van, and helping my best friend with production tasks for her radio show. Oh - and hanging out with and looking after my kitties. That's not a hobby though - that's something more important. Life is good

 

[easysurfer]

Staying the course. Need a poll .

 

[Ronstar]

Staying the course. DW and I each have an ira with an fa, and he recommended going more into equities right after the first drop. We did and are holding around 45/45/10.

 

[Whisper66]

...It is good to see that I'm not the only riding the waves and looking at the long haul and not just what's in front of us.

We also are sticking by our financial plan. Our plan allows asset allocation to vary from 60/40 (when we want "safety") to 90/10 (to allow buying into "major" corrections). Any increase in allocation requires we have 3 years of expenditures covered by cash / bond funds. The market drop brought our allocation to 47/53. We purchased three index funds to bring allocation up to 80/20. At the times of purchase each was off their highs by 20 to 33%. Now we go to sleep for a couple years and see how things work out.

 

[corn18]

Never hurts to have a thread to help us stay the course. It helps me.

 

[stepford]

Folks making a big change will often post here, perhaps looking for some validation. Those who are standing pat don't often post. Just looking at posts can give a skewed of how most are behaving.


PS. I haven't sold anything and have no plans to do so.

 

[OldShooter]

Having been through these since the excitment of 1987, I have found that staying the course in each one makes the next one easier. We were 75/25 prior to the current excitement and in a year or three will probably be back there again. I haven't even recalculated AA since January becuase it doesn't matter to us. Our fixed income side can carry us for probably 4-5 years; longer maybe since international travel will not be an option for a while.

 

[ripper1]

I have stayed about the same. Moved a few percent from bonds to 3% CD’s because it seemed like what all the cool kids were doing.
No stock selling at all. I got average going in (dollar cost averaging) and I’ll take average going out (whatever that may turn out to be).

Wow....where did you find 3% CD's??

 

[RetireAge50]

Navy Credit Union. Not available now though as far as I know.

 

[calmloki]

We had been sitting on cash dedicated to the market for about a year, watching as it could have been making bigus buckus. Finally bought VTI with it end of February to mid-March. We watch our stocks on Morningstar and record balances daily, along with tracking card and bank balances in Quicken. That is good (?) for us, as it inures us to multi-thousand dollar changes. We continue to be heavy in cash, which makes remarkably little but gives a sense of security. No pensions or annuities, tiny SS benefits, but we feel pretty good about being able to finish the race.

 

[VFK57]

Staying the course. We were 40/60 but losses made it about 35/65 as we keep individual dividend paying stocks. Many cuts in dividends what was expected in bear market.

 

[Earl E Retyre]

Staying the course. Need a poll .

I see two current er.org threads - one focused on staying the course while the other discusses getting out of the market.

I agree that a poll would be good … anyone want to start one? Whenever someone starts a poll - folks will inevitably complain about the wording of the poll or the choices. So, good luck to whoever takes this on.

 

[WyomingLife]

I see two current er.org threads - one focused on staying the course while the other discusses getting out of the market.

I agree that a poll would be good … anyone want to start one? Whenever someone starts a poll - folks will inevitably complain about the wording of the poll or the choices. So, good luck to whoever takes this on.

Maybe we could first do a poll about whether somebody should do a poll.

 

[Rianne]

Staying the course. Our last major buy-in was DJ at ~16,000. I don't know where else to go. We're not creative or risky. Our comfort zone is where we are, so no changes. Also, pension at 65 and SS at 70 helps (actually covers our spending habits).

 

[COcheesehead]

I went with a strategy first investment approach to remove as much of the emotion as possible. I use a bucket system overlaying Kitces' rising equity glidepath.
I sleep very, very well.

 

[RunningBum]

I had been staying the course, but last week's run-up just didn't make sense to me. I sold equities out of my Roth on Friday but left them in taxable since what I have left is still in the black. This moved my AA to 55/45, still not far off my 60/40 target, but the first time I've deliberately moved away from my target since I set one some 15 years or so ago.

 

[IMATERP]

I’m staying the course, also. 35/55/10 with a Pension starting January 1, 2021. The 65% in CDs and MM equates to 2.85% interest. I’m comfortable with that for the time being. As pieces of fixed income matures, I will probably dollar cost into both Wellesley Funds. That’s my strategy and I’m sticking to it!

FYI - Fixed income investments were purchased in 12/2017 in annual tranches over an 8 year period.

Early Fired - 12/15/2017
I

 

[Finance Dave]

I bought more on the way down...and have since sold such that I’m back to target AA of 20-25% equities.

 

[target2019]

Folks making a big change will often post here, perhaps looking for some validation. Those who are standing pat don't often post. Just looking at posts can give a skewed of how most are behaving.

PS. I haven't sold anything and have no plans to do so.

Bingo. Until someone asks, "Staying the Course?" you don't see that the majority of investors are not changing up at all.

 

[misanman]

Standing pat: 55/40/5

 

[easysurfer]

Bingo. Until someone asks, "Staying the Course?" you don't see that the majority of investors are not changing up at all.

+1

Translation ... boring is good. The turtle won the race .

 

[eytonxav]

I have sold a little and bought a little. Allocation went from 40/60 to 30/70, and do not plan to go any lower on the equity side.

 

[targatom2019]

I was 60/40 for 7 months before the crash and was negative 800k from peak but went 96/4 and threw every shinny penny into the market when the Dow was dropping between 20k-18k and now back break even for the year.


Edited: between 23k-18K.

 

[Rianne]

I was 60/40 before the crash and was negative 800k from peak but went 96/4 and threw every shinny penny into the market when the Dow was dropping between 20k-18k and now back break even for the year.

My, you are busy! I'd get ulcers from a move like that.

 

[like2]

Staying the course- 70/30