Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When the market was roaring, having 2-3 years of expenses in cash was seen as a missed opportunity, even for people close to retirement. And it's true that interest rates on savings accounts were pathetic - the best I could get for a HYSA was .3%. I did it anyway, because I have an extra large security gland. Of course it loses out to inflation every year, but its point isn't to maximize yield. Its point is to help you get through an environment like this without selling investments at a loss, racking up credit cut debt, or drastically cutting living expenses.

There are other options. I, for example, am currently retired (early) but still have a lot of my portfolio invested in the market. I suspected this might be a tough year for stocks, so I sold some on literally the first trading day of the year in January. But, in retrospect I didn't sell enough -- I got hit with a bigger tax bill than I had expected because I made a foolish mistake in 2021 that cost me big time. So now I'm sitting on maybe 2 months in cash reserves, 3 tops.

It's not a matter of now having to sell stocks at a loss, but of having to sell them at less of a gain. That's what happens when you play the long term game. I'm thinking, though, that instead of even doing that I might first try borrowing a few months' worth of cash from the pledged asset line that I have set up with my brokerage firm to buy a little time and see where the market goes. The interest rate is still pretty low (around 3 percent), so I'm tempted to give it a shot.

Times like these require creative thinking -- not panic or regret.

I would never want to be in the position where i'm thinking of borrowing money to pay my expenses. Even if the math works, that would seriously mess with the Sleep Well At Night side of personal finance.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Unlikely this is why you were forced out. And if so, why didn't you do like people in the 90's did, and keep it to themselves.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Co I worked for wanted more diversity, so employees with 30 + yr experience were forced out. If you didn't believe Drag queen bingo at a co. holiday party was awesome, you were given s*&t assignments. Complain? Told, seniority "doesn't count" because "we are in a pandemic"

IF the company culture was the same as it was pre-2019, I would NOT have been forced out & I would NOT chose to retire. I refuse to return to work & take a low paying job- I just do not buy any extras, will not go on vacations, or give big gifts. I would rather do with less & wait for SS & Medicare to kick in. (So I have no income at all, except for what I withdrew from 401k & my savings)

Oh & I have the lovely opportunity to pay over $32k/yr for health ins for myself & wife, (& we better not get sick because we have copays, coinsurance or we are really screwed) Can't qualify for any subsidies for ACA because I took $ out of my 401k, so we "make too much".

I can't regret retiring, because it was NOT my choice. But as a long time union member & Democrat, I certainly regret paying union dues & my voting choices.

If you are not being forced out, I would not retire until you can get SS & Medicare.

why don't you just diet and exercise and keep the 32K in your pocket instead of handing to the health insurance industry and their lobbyists , executive salaries and stock investor dividend checks

Need health care: go to minute clinic

OR, buy a plain ticket to ANY European country and show up in their ER- you know, where medical care is FREE and they have no mechanism to even bill you because its too foreign to them

Obama Care is, in fact, nothing but a coerced subsidy to the health insurance industry

It DOES NOT cost $800/mos for health care when you never need the services of a Doctor. These companies are literally racketeers and should all be prosecuted for practicing medicine without a license

If all of America would JUST STOP paying them and demand Nationalized Health Care like ALL of Europe, Australia, NZ and Canada...oh... and Russia and Cuba and Iran.... and Israel - we'd all save nearly $1,000/mos

How is THAT for an Economic stimulus and a Leg Up to Small business owners- just GET RID of the Health Insurance Industry- instant economic BOOM

Anonymous wrote:The problem is that even a lot of bond investments have had losses similar to stocks this year. A 60/40 portfolio is having the worst year on record. I just picked this random "total bond fund" and it's down over 12% YTD: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/VBMFX

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I retired 7 years ago at 53. So far I've been through two major market adjustments. The first was two years ago, when Covid first hit and the market dropped more than 30 percent. The second is now.

Market fluctuations are part of life. If you don't think you can stomach them, you're not ready to retire.

You have to think and look long term. Yes, things suck right now -- big time. But I'm still well, well ahead of where I was when I retired despite two major market fluctuations. My net worth was $4.8 million when I retired in 2015, and as of today it's $7.02 million. Yes, six months ago it was $8 million, meaning on paper I've lost $1 million this year. But I'm staying the course, and not regretting my decision to retire one iota.

+1. You need to be comfortable with the equity portion of your portfolio dropping as much as 50%. If that makes you nervous, then you had too much at risk.

The problem with taking hedge fund manager advice on what is coming for the economy is that your are asking the 1% to forecast how the 99% are going to behave and what a crash in consumer spending will do to our consumer based economy

fact is the 1% is soooo far removed from the reality of most American's financial decisions that this is how we get a Fed that claims " we failed to anticipate the effect of inflation on consumer spending"

WORSE is that these out of touch 1% Fed Reserve types think that raising interest rates will curb inflation because " in theory it does"

WRONG again: prices are up because GAS/ Oil cost more and Covid quagmired supply chain of key contributing parts- making their cost higher and higher....

When costs go up- REAL Americans- the other 349.99 Million of us- spend less. Why ???? because gas for our cars and food on our table costs more

raising Interest rates isn't going to make us buy less milk, eggs, and ground beef or chicken, raising interest rates ISN'T going to make us drive less to work

It will just make our CC bills higher and HIGHER and so we will spend less.... economic recession

I retired in June of 2021. I told my " broker " I was not comfortable putting my savings in stocks because I had never felt a VIBE in the country so insecure since the 1973 Oil Embargo and that I feared Inflation was coming. My Merrill Lynch broker responded by asking me , " what do you mean by inflation.... ?" seemingly to test if I - a middle class working stiff- actually knew what the term meant.

So, I responded with my recall of what happened to price of food in 1973/74, gas prices and 14% interest rates to buy a home- stagflation

He said, " well, our forecasters just don't see that on the horizon... these supply chain issues are very limited to China and only in a few commodities... and this will be quickly resolved"

FLASH FORWARD 1 Year and here we are....

Why did the Fed " fail to anticipate" ? Because the only people they really talk to, understand and respect are the top 1% of earners and THAT is NOT who / what drives the economy is a consumer based country like ours

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When the market was roaring, having 2-3 years of expenses in cash was seen as a missed opportunity, even for people close to retirement. And it's true that interest rates on savings accounts were pathetic - the best I could get for a HYSA was .3%. I did it anyway, because I have an extra large security gland. Of course it loses out to inflation every year, but its point isn't to maximize yield. Its point is to help you get through an environment like this without selling investments at a loss, racking up credit cut debt, or drastically cutting living expenses.

There are other options. I, for example, am currently retired (early) but still have a lot of my portfolio invested in the market. I suspected this might be a tough year for stocks, so I sold some on literally the first trading day of the year in January. But, in retrospect I didn't sell enough -- I got hit with a bigger tax bill than I had expected because I made a foolish mistake in 2021 that cost me big time. So now I'm sitting on maybe 2 months in cash reserves, 3 tops.

It's not a matter of now having to sell stocks at a loss, but of having to sell them at less of a gain. That's what happens when you play the long term game. I'm thinking, though, that instead of even doing that I might first try borrowing a few months' worth of cash from the pledged asset line that I have set up with my brokerage firm to buy a little time and see where the market goes. The interest rate is still pretty low (around 3 percent), so I'm tempted to give it a shot.

Times like these require creative thinking -- not panic or regret.

Anonymous wrote:Co I worked for wanted more diversity, so employees with 30 + yr experience were forced out. If you didn't believe Drag queen bingo at a co. holiday party was awesome, you were given s*&t assignments. Complain? Told, seniority "doesn't count" because "we are in a pandemic"

IF the company culture was the same as it was pre-2019, I would NOT have been forced out & I would NOT chose to retire. I refuse to return to work & take a low paying job- I just do not buy any extras, will not go on vacations, or give big gifts. I would rather do with less & wait for SS & Medicare to kick in. (So I have no income at all, except for what I withdrew from 401k & my savings)

Oh & I have the lovely opportunity to pay over $32k/yr for health ins for myself & wife, (& we better not get sick because we have copays, coinsurance or we are really screwed) Can't qualify for any subsidies for ACA because I took $ out of my 401k, so we "make too much".

I can't regret retiring, because it was NOT my choice. But as a long time union member & Democrat, I certainly regret paying union dues & my voting choices.

If you are not being forced out, I would not retire until you can get SS & Medicare.

why don't you just diet and exercise and keep the 32K in your pocket instead of handing to the health insurance industry and their lobbyists , executive salaries and stock investor dividend checks

Need health care: go to minute clinic

OR, buy a plain ticket to ANY European country and show up in their ER- you know, where medical care is FREE and they have no mechanism to even bill you because its too foreign to them

Obama Care is, in fact, nothing but a coerced subsidy to the health insurance industry

It DOES NOT cost $800/mos for health care when you never need the services of a Doctor. These companies are literally racketeers and should all be prosecuted for practicing medicine without a license

If all of America would JUST STOP paying them and demand Nationalized Health Care like ALL of Europe, Australia, NZ and Canada...oh... and Russia and Cuba and Iran.... and Israel - we'd all save nearly $1,000/mos

How is THAT for an Economic stimulus and a Leg Up to Small business owners- just GET RID of the Health Insurance Industry- instant economic BOOM

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I retired 7 years ago at 53. So far I've been through two major market adjustments. The first was two years ago, when Covid first hit and the market dropped more than 30 percent. The second is now.

Market fluctuations are part of life. If you don't think you can stomach them, you're not ready to retire.

You have to think and look long term. Yes, things suck right now -- big time. But I'm still well, well ahead of where I was when I retired despite two major market fluctuations. My net worth was $4.8 million when I retired in 2015, and as of today it's $7.02 million. Yes, six months ago it was $8 million, meaning on paper I've lost $1 million this year. But I'm staying the course, and not regretting my decision to retire one iota.

+1. You need to be comfortable with the equity portion of your portfolio dropping as much as 50%. If that makes you nervous, then you had too much at risk.

Anonymous wrote:Co I worked for wanted more diversity, so employees with 30 + yr experience were forced out. If you didn't believe Drag queen bingo at a co. holiday party was awesome, you were given s*&t assignments. Complain? Told, seniority "doesn't count" because "we are in a pandemic"

IF the company culture was the same as it was pre-2019, I would NOT have been forced out & I would NOT chose to retire. I refuse to return to work & take a low paying job- I just do not buy any extras, will not go on vacations, or give big gifts. I would rather do with less & wait for SS & Medicare to kick in. (So I have no income at all, except for what I withdrew from 401k & my savings)

Oh & I have the lovely opportunity to pay over $32k/yr for health ins for myself & wife, (& we better not get sick because we have copays, coinsurance or we are really screwed) Can't qualify for any subsidies for ACA because I took $ out of my 401k, so we "make too much".

I can't regret retiring, because it was NOT my choice. But as a long time union member & Democrat, I certainly regret paying union dues & my voting choices.

If you are not being forced out, I would not retire until you can get SS & Medicare.

Anonymous wrote:Co I worked for wanted more diversity, so employees with 30 + yr experience were forced out. If you didn't believe Drag queen bingo at a co. holiday party was awesome, you were given s*&t assignments. Complain? Told, seniority "doesn't count" because "we are in a pandemic"

IF the company culture was the same as it was pre-2019, I would NOT have been forced out & I would NOT chose to retire. I refuse to return to work & take a low paying job- I just do not buy any extras, will not go on vacations, or give big gifts. I would rather do with less & wait for SS & Medicare to kick in. (So I have no income at all, except for what I withdrew from 401k & my savings)

Oh & I have the lovely opportunity to pay over $32k/yr for health ins for myself & wife, (& we better not get sick because we have copays, coinsurance or we are really screwed) Can't qualify for any subsidies for ACA because I took $ out of my 401k, so we "make too much".

I can't regret retiring, because it was NOT my choice. But as a long time union member & Democrat, I certainly regret paying union dues & my voting choices.

If you are not being forced out, I would not retire until you can get SS & Medicare.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Co I worked for wanted more diversity, so employees with 30 + yr experience were forced out. If you didn't believe Drag queen bingo at a co. holiday party was awesome, you were given s*&t assignments. Complain? Told, seniority "doesn't count" because "we are in a pandemic"

IF the company culture was the same as it was pre-2019, I would NOT have been forced out & I would NOT chose to retire. I refuse to return to work & take a low paying job- I just do not buy any extras, will not go on vacations, or give big gifts. I would rather do with less & wait for SS & Medicare to kick in. (So I have no income at all, except for what I withdrew from 401k & my savings)

Oh & I have the lovely opportunity to pay over $32k/yr for health ins for myself & wife, (& we better not get sick because we have copays, coinsurance or we are really screwed) Can't qualify for any subsidies for ACA because I took $ out of my 401k, so we "make too much".

I can't regret retiring, because it was NOT my choice. But as a long time union member & Democrat, I certainly regret paying union dues & my voting choices.

If you are not being forced out, I would not retire until you can get SS & Medicare.

Unlikely this is why you were forced out. And if so, why didn't you do like people in the 90's did, and keep it to themselves.