Retiring in a down market

[NW-Bound]

Oh man! Our feet are so far off the trampoline I wonder if anybody is feeling like Wily the Coyote in the short moment he is suspending in thin air.

 

[audreyh1]

Talk about a trampoline bounce and still going up. Retired date June 30, 2010.....DOW 9774....S and P.....1031......;

Be careful what you invoke!

 

[W2R]

Oh man! Our feet are so far off the trampoline I wonder if anybody is feeling like Wily the Coyote in the short moment he is suspending in thin air.

Or flying up, up and away, in my beautiful balloon..

I retired in 2009. Being essentially a scaredy-cat, I never dreamed we would have a bull market as long and vibrant as we have had for the past seven years. What tremendously good luck for many of us.

 

[NW-Bound]

The pessimist in me says that all balloons eventually leak, if they do not burst.

And the higher you go, the more distance you will fall.

 

[Clone]

I don't understand why you folks are so concerned. I remember plenty of the old guy's at work in late 1999 that took an early retirement program. 'Heck', they said, 'anyone can make 15% in the market!'

 

[RobbieB]

The pessimist in me says that all balloons eventually leak, if they do not burst.

And the higher you go, the more distance you will fall.

So the richer you get the more you worry?

 

[Pvanant]

I have not "drawn down" my portfolio at all since retirement 2011. I live off the income stream my investments generate. The stock and bond portion of that generates 4.5% a year. Don't invade principle and your money should last forever.


Sent from my iPhone using Early Retirement Forum

 

[NW-Bound]

So the richer you get the more you worry?

Getting rich slowly is preferable to me. When the market goes nuts and the P/E gets high like the current value of 24.70, it's getting frothy.

But it's OK. I cannot tell other people to buy or not to buy. I can only control my own buy/sell action. And it's getting harder to find stocks to buy, because the ones I think are cheap, I already have enough off.

 

[NW-Bound]

... I already have enough off.

Meant to write "... I already have enough of". I hate typos, particularly when they are my own.

 

[Totoro]

The pessimist in me says that all balloons eventually leak, if they do not burst.

And the higher you go, the more distance you will fall.

Unless you reach portfolio escape velocity, right?

 

[Danmar]

I have not "drawn down" my portfolio at all since retirement 2011. I live off the income stream my investments generate. The stock and bond portion of that generates 4.5% a year. Don't invade principle and your money should last forever.


Sent from my iPhone using Early Retirement Forum

Agree and your heirs will thank you.

 

[brett]

We have had good fortune. Retired in an up market plus low inflation. Both have made a positive contribution to our net worth.

 

[JoeWras]

Driving to Mecum auction yesterday

Forget about all this complicated sequence of return stuff.

I want to know what you bought at the Mecum auction! Did you have to raise your WR % afford it?

 

[Big_Hitter]

As of Friday my portfolio is 2.5% higher than it was when I ER'd a little over two years ago. I hope that means I didn't retire into a down market.

maybe you aren't spending enough?

 

[Looking4Ward]

maybe you aren't spending enough?

Perhaps, although I'm actually spending a bit more than I had anticipated once I got used to drawing from my portfolio rather than adding to it.

 

[marko]

Don't invade principle and your money should last forever.

Unless inflation eats away at your withdrawal rate.

(Respectfully, not to get too picky but I think you mean 'principal'; I know...I'm in that kind of mood today. Sorry.)

 

[kcowan]

Retired in 2002 knowing the bad news and micro-managed the budget and portfolio for 5 years, and have now relaxed, knowing we can live forever. Purchased our snowbird condo in 2007.