Don't look at your investments too closely.

[youbet]

He always adores his interviewees

Gee, ya think he'd give them all a hard time and be rude to them. Then he could wonder why he couldn't get any guests to come on the show........

He treats them all the same. We watch and listen and draw our own conclusions.

 

[steelyman]

I finally got the green light that the transfer of my 457 (deferred compensation) funds from T Rowe Price to Empower has been completed and my new account is ready.

Apart from the usual things like registering, establishing a user name and password, installing a new app and so on the process was painless and the balances are fine. It was nice to be able to double check.

Empower’s app is light years ahead of (better than) Price’s offering. So overall a positive change.

 

[Rianne]

I agree. I update (and save results) on the first of the month no matter how bad things are. The resulting graph, which I have from 30 years back, really puts the "disastrous" markets in perspective. The lesson I learned is that the good stuff recovers, so weed out under-performers along the way and sit tight in bear markets.

As for inflation- that's why I stay invested. What's important is the "real" rate of return over time- the delta between investment returns and inflation. It will be negative if you don't have some in equities.

++ I keep looking at the max history of the S&P and Dow historical charts. We've had a tidal wave up and smaller waves down. Since I use 30 years for retirement length going forward we remain 100% successful, even if I lose 50% of our current portfolio. Spending can always be adjusted if you have no debt. Everyone keeps looking at the YTD. I look at 5 years ago, 3 years ago. Still in the positive (at least). Firecalc goes all the way back to 1871. I keep using the lowest start amount for the portfolio and adjust the spending amount where we're at least comfortable.

What's the worst case scenario? Whatever it is we've been there before. Unless, of course, there's a world economy collapse in which we're all screwed. Thankful we have a garden and live about 2.5 hours from the Great Lakes.