Sometimes it is hard to do nothing!!

[VanWinkle]

An interesting article that uses my Forum name to make a point!!

https://humbledollar.com/2022/01/in..._medium=email&utm_campaign=another-ses-test_7


From the article posted on HumbleDollar:

"Just sitting there doing nothing has proved to be the smartest move 20 years down the line, providing you own at least some stocks. There’s never been a negative 20-year period for U.S. stocks in the last 150 years, Yale economist and Nobel laureate Robert Shiller has found. But it would help us immensely to be like Rip Van Winkle, asleep the whole time. Let me put it this way: I’m trying hard to do nothing, but it’s been a struggle."

"I’ll give the last word to Taleb, whose book The Black Swan explains our problem. “I noticed that very intelligent and informed persons were at no advantage to cabdrivers in their predictions, but there was a crucial difference. Cabdrivers did not believe that they understood as much as a learned person—they were not experts and they knew it. Nobody knew anything but elite thinkers thought they knew more than the rest because they were elite thinkers, and if you’re a member of the elite, you automatically know more than the nonelite.”"

It's likely a good time to do nothing since it is impossible to know what is coming next.

VW

 

[ERD50]

There was a story going around, that turned out to be fake, but I think it is still valuable as a 'parable'.

The story was that Fidelity was doing an analysis of investors, and dug a little deeper into the most successful top X%. They found that these accounts had a large % of dead people.

Dead people make the best investors, they don't try to get in/out of the market, or trade - the ultimate buy-and-hold!

Fake news, but I think the underlying message has some value, and is backed up by real data.

-ERD50

 

[OldShooter]

Funny. Here is the investment management advice I give the students in my Adult-Ed investment classes :

 

[kgtest]

Buy low. That's the opposite of what others' are doing which is selling. It's very hard to go against the grain, but also very rewarding. I can't just do nothing...I'll buy more with whatever change I can scrap together...which isn't much extra since raising 3 kids in such a high COL era.

 

[VanWinkle]

Buy low. That's the opposite of what others' are doing which is selling. It's very hard to go against the grain, but also very rewarding. I can't just do nothing...I'll buy more with whatever change I can scrap together...which isn't much extra since raising 3 kids in such a high COL era.

I agree that buying to re-balance is part of the plan, not an emotional reaction to Mr Market. Thanks for including that!!

VW

 

[Koolau]

One of the reasons I have kept my equity position relatively low is that I'm less tempted to sell. I guess that's why they call it risk tolerance. YMMV

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

In the words of Peter Gibbons...

Michael, I did nothing. I did absolutely nothing, and it was everything I thought it could be.

 

[TheWizard]

It's hard to TLH by doing nothing.
I sold a few lots of VXF over the last week or so and then moved the proceeds into VB and VO, all Vanguard ETFs.

I still have a few more lots of VXF, so we'll see what happens in coming weeks.

Important to note that I didn't sell and go to cash for an extended period. It was a sideways TLH move...