What has this drastic financial situation tought you?

[Time2]

It taught me, I might have a little to much stock. We are 18 months retired.
I have a little less than 85% in stocks, and 3% in bonds, the rest in cash or
or land.

I got a little nervous and sold $250k on 2-28 and bought it back 18% lower
on 3-25. It was a tax deferred account so no tax consequences.
But, I have no real reason to be nervous, if half our portfolio disappeared, it would make no difference to our standard of living, only the kids inheritance. Which if things go well they won't get until they are in their 50's.

 

[ESRwannabe]

This recession has also taught me that I need to keep a month's supply of toilet paper and hand sanitizer in storage at all times because of hoarding jerks.

I hope toilet paper hoarders get bad karma. Not cool dude!

P.S. Oh and if I ever buy a house, all toilets will have a bidet.

 

[frayne]

It has taught me exactly the same as Midpack, who stated my thoughts so succinctly. I will add compassion, for those in my age demographic that struggle daily to make ends meet. We here at the ER forum who are FI are truly fortunate and blessed.

It's taught me to be humble and grateful we're retired and comfortably FI, almost no matter what happens (AA below). So it hasn't led me to lose any sleep, or change my AA at all - just like '87, '00 & '09. If anything I'll up my equity and bond allocations as I have way more dry powder than ever before, but I'm not in any hurry.

And I believe our investments will recover nicely, just don't know if it will take months or years, though the latter seems more likely in my uneducated view.

I am genuinely concerned about the millions of people just beginning their careers or finding their way in the job market, at least the many who've made the right choices but will be badly hurt financially if not otherwise.

 

[audreyh1]

My investment philosophy is generally pretty conservative IMO even though I have a 50% exposure to assets in my retirement investments. We have no pension or SS and have been early retired for over 20 years withdrawing from our retirement investments.

So far it has confirmed again that my investment plan is right for me, that I am happy to not have a higher exposure to equities. I’ve been through 2 other nasty bears since retiring, although each one has been different. I really value having a large fixed income component and long rising apparently overvalued markets make me very nervous.

It has also confirmed my habit to let unspent funds accumulate in short-term funds in case we hit a sudden recession or bear market which reduces future retirement income for a while. In the run up to this event, as the market kept getting higher and higher, I ended up accumulating quite a bit of unspent income. In Jan we gifted a big chunk of it to my siblings, with plenty still left over for us. I’m very, very glad we did that because my siblings have each been affected strongly by the various shutdowns and timing couldn’t have been better for an extra cash cushion.

Yes, I’m also very grateful to be retired with funds and not to have to worry about work and have the flexibility to temporarily relocate and shelter in place to help out DF as needed.

This is not over yet - we haven’t finished weathering this one. I’m expecting ~2 years of economic disruptions counting from Jan 2020.

I’ve been working on tax loss harvesting and expect to have more opportunities to put the plan to work in the near future. If I don’t get another opportunity this year I’ll be very surprised and amazed.

 

[audreyh1]

From an investment standpoint, it has taught us we're getting irritated with DODIX's performance during rough times. It is just like 2008-09 all over again with that fund. I have also noted that many of the ratings given this fund aren't as high as they were in the past. At one time it was a highly recommended managed income fund. Now, not as much.

We have been leaving DW's funds with her old 401(k) firm because DODIX is available along with several Vanguard funds. But this may be the time to finally roll over her 401(k) into an IRA and move away from DODIX.

Yep - I suffered owning DODIX in 2008 although it recovered quickly in 2009, and I still own a legacy chunk, but I over the years I shifted a good chunk to higher quality bond index funds.

 

[statsman]

Yep - I suffered owning DODIX in 2008 although it recovered quickly in 2009, and I still own a legacy chunk, but I over the years I shifted a good chunk to higher quality bond index funds.

That's where I'm at now, investigating which bond index funds we would want to shift the assets to. Close to 1/3rd of our bond AA is in that fund, so this isn't a trivial consideration for us.

 

[audreyh1]

I'm just wondering if this event would cause people to change their answers to a question I posed 5 years ago. If you can cover your expenses with pensions and social security, should you take the yearly portfolio withdrawal FIRECalc says you can take anyway and keep it in cash, or leave it invested?

https://www.early-retirement.org/fo...folio-when-pension-covers-expenses-80100.html

I think it completely depends on your goals, particularly what you want to leave for your heirs.

For me, I have consistently withdrawn the max allowed based on my planed withdrawal rate, even if it’s more than we are likely to spend. Because our portfolio will support that level of the withdrawal over the long term, and we don’t need it to grow even more. The excess goes into short-term investments. We don’t have young heirs, we prefer to gift while we are alive, we can spend excess whenever we want, and we expect to spend down the portfolio if necessary although it’s very unlikely that it will be less than half remaining.

When making my annual withdrawal then rebalancing in Jan I’m always thinking - what if we have a bear market later this year? I’m never tempted to take out less for some reason....... LOL!

 

[Gumby]

We have no children, so no need to worry about any bequest.

 

[audreyh1]

That's where I'm at now, investigating which bond index funds we would want to shift the assets to. Close to 1/3rd of our bond AA is in that fund, so this isn't a trivial consideration for us.

I use US bond index funds FXNAX (core, intermediate duration) and VIRBX/FXNOX (short-term) as I liked their quality profile. We also hold a cash position in our fixed income mostly in short-term CDs.

 

[Shredder]

Although holding a mortgage wasn't stressful over the last 8 years, (3.25%) it became a nagging concern when my portfolio was sliding downhill. So today I sent a check to the mortgage holder to pay it off. Lesson learned. Tomorrow I start dollar cost averaging into a mutual fund again.

 

[audreyh1]

We have no children, so no need to worry about any bequest.

We don’t have children either. The question is, what are you going do with the funds in your investment portfolio? Would you prefer to use them now or much later? What are you saving for?

 

[Cayman]

Like others in this forum, gratitude for our financial situation.

We were working in '08 and didn't sell, but did contribute the max to our retirement accounts and our AA was around 70/10/20 then. Now retired in our early 50s, our equity AA was around 45 before this mess. I haven't re-calculated it and gratefully don't feel the need to right now. Staying the course. More concerned with others - friends and community members who are suffering financially or otherwise due to Corona.

 

[6miths]

Drastic? Huh? Please wake me in December when it's time to do the annual review of our portfolio.

People talk about Black Swans. The virus was not a black swan to the public health community; they have been preparing and warning for years. The dip in stock values was not a black swan to anyone who is familiar with the market. The only black swan here was the arrival of the virus and its timing. "Drastic" for its victims, to be sure.

Alongside getting dead, the kerfluffle in the markets is a don't-care.

Another agree. You think this was drastic? I was kind of hoping it would be drastic. No such luck so far but the day is young. And of course, so much for 'free' markets. I'm betting that one day, I have no idea when, things are going to truly get 'drastic'.

 

[homestead]

We are doing ok financially but we have a storage area that we should have kept better stocked for emergencies but the supplies there were minimal. But we did have a package of toilet paper there so that was nice. Next year after things return to normal will try to do better.

 

[SpinDoctorTX]

That we are very lucky compared to many, and have a large enough cash positions (cd ladders, savings, etc.) to cover 3 years expenses. Fortunately we've not had to filter any $ to relatives (yet), but if anyone needs something, we can still help.

I'm not a hoarder, but I tend to keep a lot of food, TP, PT, cash etc. around b/c Houston has a lot of flooding incidents + the occasional hurricane. Depending on where you live, you might not have power for weeks on end with disruptions in stores- much like now but certainly not as severe. I'll def. store more alcohol (cleaning not drinking- we don't drink lol), as I make almost all of my own cleaning products, and right now there is none to be had. As a clean freak, I do have a lot of alternatives.

 

[slowsaver]

I haven't sold anything, but I'm not sure my AA was right for me. Bonds are apparently not conservative enough for me, and I'm considering holding more CDs instead of bonds. I'll wait at least another month to see what happens with my bond funds before going that route.

 

[RobbieB]

I think I'll transition to a 60-30-10 AA, equities, bonds, cash.

 

[Midpack]

I think I'll transition to a 60-30-10 AA, equities, bonds, cash.

From what?

 

[RobbieB]

I dunno. Gotta wait until the statement comes in. Used to be 80-18-2.

 

[Kwirk]

I learned that I need to buy a personal powered respirator when such things are available again.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

We changed our AA to be very conservative after 2008. Looking back I don't know why we didn't retire in 2007, call it good enough and move everything to conservative investments. We could have both retired several years earlier than we did. I learned back then, to paraphrase Warren Buffet, there was no point in risking the money I had and did need to make extra money I didn't have and didn't need.

 

[GTFan]

People talk about Black Swans. The virus was not a black swan to the public health community; they have been preparing and warning for years. The dip in stock values was not a black swan to anyone who is familiar with the market. The only black swan here was the arrival of the virus and its timing. "Drastic" for its victims, to be sure.

So the economy getting put on lockdown is not a swan? LOL, I thought I was wrong about this being a swan or not. You're in a whole 'nother league.

Let me know if you change your mind when/if we're getting near depression level, this has the potential to make 2009 feel like a mild recession.

I haven't changed anything financially but it sure has taught me the value of the friendships I have while volunteering at my local food pantry. There's a whole lot less of us volunteers there now.

 

[easysurfer]

Taught me that an equity allocation of (100 - age) isn't too bad of a rule of thumb .

 

[SnowballCamper]

It hasn't taught me much. My confirmation bias is quite strong. It has reinforced my belief in index investing. I know now more than ever before that my asset allocation is a tool to give me something to do when we encounter a "drastic financial situation". --rebalance-- As a result I bought stocks low, and sold bonds high. If it gets more drastic, I'll do it again. As long as the financial system is working, the market will go up in the long run. If the financial system stops working, not much else will be working either, and I'll wish I had bought reams of silver dollars--maybe at the next stock market peak?

 

[treeofpain]

Sold almost all equities in late 2019. Missed out on 10% run-up in early 2020, but also missed out on the big drop over the past few weeks. Was tempted to get back in in a big way when things dropped, but I think we will see lower in the next several weeks. Another option is dollar-cost-averaging back in starting now, but I am chicken...