I always thought it tended to be the other way around, due to the fact that as we age, we gain more experience in the market. I remember friends who were very nervous of equities when they started out. One co-worker was quite bent out of shape, because he'd put a first-time investment of a few hundred dollars into an index fund. A year or two later, he'd lost a significant percentage of that initial investment (must have been during a market crash) and was re-thinking the whole idea of equities.
... except that the portion that a retiree has converted into consumables is flushed down the toilet (literally!), and has no chance of coming back up.
You hope it doesn't come back up!... except that the portion that a retiree has converted into consumables is flushed down the toilet (literally!), and has no chance of coming back up.
If you don't mind having that "comes back up" part questioned, sometime read Triumph of the Optimists by Elroy Dimson and others.
Uh, I was thinking the same, but did not want to use too graphic terms. While I do have a septic tank in my other boonies home, it is underutilized and I hope to never have the problem.
Don't you have a high water table where you live? That would cause a big problem when it rains dogs and cats. Like it has been doing.
Nice to be on a high point like that. My high-country home is on a hill, and only 120 ft higher than the highway 0.2 miles away. Yet, looking down on the surrounding homes and the road from my deck, I already feel like king of the hill (the main reason I bought the place
).You have some really smart bunnies. Ours know nothing about septic systems.
Sorry too good to pass up.
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Everyday I compare my portfolio percentage change with the indices, meaning the Dow, S&P500, and the NASDAQ, to see how I fare. And I also look at percentage change for longer-term performance tracking.
I know not to look at the change in dollar terms, but man, when I was younger I would not think there would be a time when I would see a drop of $80K in a single day, or a gain of $50K (it always drops more and faster in a day than it does going up), and still acted cool.
Well, the market movement still hurts or makes me feel a bit happier, but I know that's the nature of the beast. And it's only money.
Being in the distribution and not the accumulation phase, I look at the dollar amount fluctuation in terms of how many months of living expenses that equates to. So, 2% today is roughly 6-7 months of expenses.
The Vanguarg FP convinced me to go from 40% to 45%. He initially encouraged 50% until I showed him my "escrow account" to give me the same dollars that SS and medicare would contribute to my retirement income. It's an extra cash portion that will decline year by year until I reach 70. I don't know if I conviced him of the logic or he just realized I wasn't going to go all the way.
