I’m in it for the next 10-20 years. Taken a good sized hit, but I only even look at the 401K three or four times a year, when they send me statements. If I thought I might need my funds anytime in the next 5 years I’d be upset, but then if I though that was the case, I would be in a S&P 500 index fund. Have everything in market index funds, no worries. It can go down to 22,250 and it will be back to flirting with 30K in a couple of years.
The market is the ONLY place people run out of the store when they’re having a sale!
Few can beat dollar-cost averaging into a market index fund, I know I can’t.
Oops, I meant to say “if I thought I might need any of it in the next 5-10 years, I wouldn’t be in a S&P 500 index fund!”
“The market is the ONLY place people run out of the store when they’re having a sale!”
I have been in the stock business for most of my adult life, both as a broker and a manager, now retired, and I thought I heard every pithy line about the market, but this is one I’ve never heard, and it perfectly describes the herd instinct.
As soon as I read it, I burst out laughing, and my dear wife asked what was so funny. I read to her what you wrote, and she burst out laughing also.
Thank you, and trust me, I’ll be using that line a lot in the near future.