Entire stock portfolio down 50% in one year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry some of these stocks dropped 80 PERCENT IN ONE YEAR.

Yeah, that happens. Trust your husband and ride it out.

Which tech stocks? Are they small cap or what are we talking?

They are listed on the first page

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ok. Yah. Luckily we have 1.5mil equity in RE but I’m scared of what he’s done. Totally reckless. We are late 30’s, 2 kids. I told him I am taking over finances from this point forward. He won’t switch out the stocks he’s in now but from this point forward it’s going to be all conservative choices. Unfortunately he basically gambled away our 401k doing this.

You need to have a serious talk about shared decision-making. You keep saying he did this with your (the couple's) retirement money. Were you consulted?

It is crazy if he make choices that impact your future with no advance discussion. Such decisions should be mutual/negotiated. He is your husband, not your father. This would be a cause for marriage counselling if he does operates this way about any important decision. (And if you knew, but just gave in to his decision, then it is your responsibility as well.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok. Yah. Luckily we have 1.5mil equity in RE but I’m scared of what he’s done. Totally reckless. We are late 30’s, 2 kids. I told him I am taking over finances from this point forward. He won’t switch out the stocks he’s in now but from this point forward it’s going to be all conservative choices. Unfortunately he basically gambled away our 401k doing this.

You are in your 30s, have 1.5m in real estate equity, and you're scared?

Also, he didn't gamble away your 401k. He lost 50% of the value, but it easily could rebound in the 20+ years you have until retirement.

Your husband is right about you. In fact, you may not be a fool, you may be a blithering idiot.

A smart investor wouldn't be down 50 PERCENT IN ONE YEAR. ONE YEAR.
From this point forward we have to invest in index funds and conservative choices to offset that we have 1mil dollars in about 15 random individual tech stocks.

No one is saying this was a good choice. But (i) locking in your losses is moronic, and (ii) with the time frame you have, investing in "conservative choices" is equally foolish. Index funds are fine going forward, and if you want to sell the stocks when they come back to even and return to index funds, that may be OK, too.

Yah we aren’t selling but we also aren’t investing like this with 100 percent of our retirement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My husband took all our money out of index funds and put in personal tech stops and it dropped 50% this year. My husband did this. I'm so scared and don't know what to do in our situation. He won't talk about it and calls me a fool to take the money out of the market now. I'm so angry to be in this situation.

Well, he made a bad choice, but he's right about your proposed course of action now. Don't compound (and lock in) his mistake with your own.

Agreed. I am very conservative, but unless the money is in junk bonds or something, hold on to it when the value is low.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok. Yah. Luckily we have 1.5mil equity in RE but I’m scared of what he’s done. Totally reckless. We are late 30’s, 2 kids. I told him I am taking over finances from this point forward. He won’t switch out the stocks he’s in now but from this point forward it’s going to be all conservative choices. Unfortunately he basically gambled away our 401k doing this.

You are in your 30s, have 1.5m in real estate equity, and you're scared?

Also, he didn't gamble away your 401k. He lost 50% of the value, but it easily could rebound in the 20+ years you have until retirement.

Your husband is right about you. In fact, you may not be a fool, you may be a blithering idiot.

I bet all the men, who are statistically and biologically are more programmed to risk, are okay with this generally and it’s a bunch of low info women who are aghast. That’s a huge generalization, and I know I sound like a dck, but really it’s probably true.


It’s always part of the reason there is a salary imbalance between men and women. Men straight up advocate harder for themselves and take more risks.

Oh got it. They just make it happen because they are so cool and courageous. Pat yourself on the back a bit more (and ignore all of the social science evidence which proves that there is bias against women.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok. Yah. Luckily we have 1.5mil equity in RE but I’m scared of what he’s done. Totally reckless. We are late 30’s, 2 kids. I told him I am taking over finances from this point forward. He won’t switch out the stocks he’s in now but from this point forward it’s going to be all conservative choices. Unfortunately he basically gambled away our 401k doing this.

You are in your 30s, have 1.5m in real estate equity, and you're scared?

Also, he didn't gamble away your 401k. He lost 50% of the value, but it easily could rebound in the 20+ years you have until retirement.

Your husband is right about you. In fact, you may not be a fool, you may be a blithering idiot.

A smart investor wouldn't be down 50 PERCENT IN ONE YEAR. ONE YEAR.
From this point forward we have to invest in index funds and conservative choices to offset that we have 1mil dollars in about 15 random individual tech stocks.

No one is saying this was a good choice. But (i) locking in your losses is moronic, and (ii) with the time frame you have, investing in "conservative choices" is equally foolish. Index funds are fine going forward, and if you want to sell the stocks when they come back to even and return to index funds, that may be OK, too.

Yah we aren’t selling but we also aren’t investing like this with 100 percent of our retirement.

You wrote in your initial post that you wanted to sell:

"He won't talk about it and calls me a fool to take the money out of the market now."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok. Yah. Luckily we have 1.5mil equity in RE but I’m scared of what he’s done. Totally reckless. We are late 30’s, 2 kids. I told him I am taking over finances from this point forward. He won’t switch out the stocks he’s in now but from this point forward it’s going to be all conservative choices. Unfortunately he basically gambled away our 401k doing this.

You are in your 30s, have 1.5m in real estate equity, and you're scared?

Also, he didn't gamble away your 401k. He lost 50% of the value, but it easily could rebound in the 20+ years you have until retirement.

Your husband is right about you. In fact, you may not be a fool, you may be a blithering idiot.

A smart investor wouldn't be down 50 PERCENT IN ONE YEAR. ONE YEAR.
From this point forward we have to invest in index funds and conservative choices to offset that we have 1mil dollars in about 15 random individual tech stocks.

Cathie Wood has entered the chat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok. Yah. Luckily we have 1.5mil equity in RE but I’m scared of what he’s done. Totally reckless. We are late 30’s, 2 kids. I told him I am taking over finances from this point forward. He won’t switch out the stocks he’s in now but from this point forward it’s going to be all conservative choices. Unfortunately he basically gambled away our 401k doing this.

You are in your 30s, have 1.5m in real estate equity, and you're scared?

Also, he didn't gamble away your 401k. He lost 50% of the value, but it easily could rebound in the 20+ years you have until retirement.

Your husband is right about you. In fact, you may not be a fool, you may be a blithering idiot.

A smart investor wouldn't be down 50 PERCENT IN ONE YEAR. ONE YEAR.
From this point forward we have to invest in index funds and conservative choices to offset that we have 1mil dollars in about 15 random individual tech stocks.

What about some of these that lost 80 percent? teledoc? don’t you think there’s a good chance it could just go out of business?
No one is saying this was a good choice. But (i) locking in your losses is moronic, and (ii) with the time frame you have, investing in "conservative choices" is equally foolish. Index funds are fine going forward, and if you want to sell the stocks when they come back to even and return to index funds, that may be OK, too.

Yah we aren’t selling but we also aren’t investing like this with 100 percent of our retirement.

You wrote in your initial post that you wanted to sell:

"He won't talk about it and calls me a fool to take the money out of the market now."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Someone wise in Bogleheads told me once, “You only lose when you sell.”
Eventually his portfolio will go back up and you will have a lot of money again.

Or they won't.

Looking at the actual stocks her husband picked, they look like a bunch of trash companies that ran up during the pandemic and have been getting crushed for the last 6+ months:

AMWL: American Well Corporation
YI: Some online COVID testing company
TDOC: Teledoc some online telehealth company
AMZN: Amazon, well they have held steady enough
LMND:Lemonade, an online insurance company
NEE: Next Era Energy, ok they have held up
ABNB: maybe ok, who knows.
MASI: Masimo, another telehealth company
PGNY: Progyny, some other healthcare online company
FROG: I have no idea what this company does but the 5 year chart is a straight line from 87 a share to 21 dollars a share. Looks like a dog
FSLY: Again I have no idea what this company does but 5 years ago it was worth ~12 a share during the pandemic it jumped up to 120s and then straight back to 12 again

and so on. These are some of the worst stocks you could find, I have no faith in any of them except perhaps amazon. Your husband is the stock picking equivalent of a drunk driver, you need to take away his keys.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My husband took all our money out of index funds and put in personal tech stops and it dropped 50% this year. My husband did this. I'm so scared and don't know what to do in our situation. He won't talk about it and calls me a fool to take the money out of the market now. I'm so angry to be in this situation.

Well, he made a bad choice, but he's right about your proposed course of action now. Don't compound (and lock in) his mistake with your own.

Some of those stocks at worth 80% of what they were a year ago. You really think it's just going to have a big turn around putting 10% of our portfolio in some random telecdoc company? If he played index funds the most we would love in a year is like 10 percent even in a recession. No one's stock portfolio should drop FIFTY PERCENT IN ONE YEAR if they are being moderate. I told him take $20k of money we can afford to lose and gamble with whatever you want to pick but don't make risky choices with our family's future.

OK, calm down lady. TDOC is not random, it was a darling two years ago and had a rise in 2020 that was the equivalent of its fall this year. So yes, it could have a big turnaround - it is a strong company and just announced a partnership with Amazon. Same with LMND, CRWD, FSLY, etc. So give your husband a break -- he was doing what he thought was best for his family. You are in your 30s, there is plenty of time to recover. Do not sell at a loss right now. Just start investing future earnings in an index fund to even out your portfolio. But an investment portfolio for someone your age and with your profile can and should have risk exposure. It's more fun

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Someone wise in Bogleheads told me once, “You only lose when you sell.”
Eventually his portfolio will go back up and you will have a lot of money again.

Not necessarily. In 2001 I bought into a hot tech firm called Real Networks (YouTube before YouTube). Nope, out of business. Tech is finicky. Not all survive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone wise in Bogleheads told me once, “You only lose when you sell.”
Eventually his portfolio will go back up and you will have a lot of money again.

Not necessarily. In 2001 I bought into a hot tech firm called Real Networks (YouTube before YouTube). Nope, out of business. Tech is finicky. Not all survive.

I was going to post this. I am not sure if any of those companies other than Amazon are profitable. Like Lemonade is fairy well known and still does has not turned a profit. Fed is raising rates, investing funds will dry up and lots of unprofitable businesses will zero out.

I would simply liquidate any unprofitable company from that list; you run the risk of it all going to zero as the Fed tightens. You have $1.5M in your 401k? That’s way more than most people do (I mean $30k / year is limit, so clearly you invested aggressively and had huge gains to get to $1.5M from probably $450k invested). So you had some pull back because that high risk bit you, but you are hardly behind.

BUT with only 15 unprofitable stocks on your portfolios the risk of it going to almost zero is radically high. Do you have cash investments besides your home equity (also amazingly high for your age) significant enough that you can write these off?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That's why you don't DIY the market. Get a financial advisor to manage your money and tell him no more playing with the market.

BS, you don't need a financial advisor, at least not a financial advisor who gets 1% of your assets annually. Just invest in broad-based indexes, like VTI, and invest monthly. You'll beat 75% of the financial advisors simply due to not paying advisor fees and high fund fees.

[Anonymous]

You need a marriage counselor before a financial planner. You need to figure out how to make decisions together. There's no one right way--you can each have your own pools of money to invest as you choose, you can talk things through and come to consensus, you can outsource the whole thing to a CFP or a target date fund or whatever--but your contempt for each other comes through in this post. IF you don't fix that, you also don't need a financial planner right away--you need a divorce lawyer, and then you can invest your assets as you wish once everything is divided.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You need a marriage counselor before a financial planner. You need to figure out how to make decisions together. There's no one right way--you can each have your own pools of money to invest as you choose, you can talk things through and come to consensus, you can outsource the whole thing to a CFP or a target date fund or whatever--but your contempt for each other comes through in this post. IF you don't fix that, you also don't need a financial planner right away--you need a divorce lawyer, and then you can invest your assets as you wish once everything is divided.

What's the point of that? Let's say each has 2 mil to invest and DH loses his 2M. If a divorce happens, won't OP have to fork over 50% of her $2M?