I took that bullet in 2008, stayed in and have a full magazine today. I know people who bailed in 2008 and are still working and scraping by. That 1% interest rate sure keeps a person ahead of inflation.
Stocks fluctuate and clearly yours has been the wiser course thus far. I am of similar thinking. I buy the stock of solid companies for the dividend and don’t worry about the stock price. Every now and then I’ll buy a Borden but that is more than made up for by Nucor, Sunoco Logistics, P&G, MMM, Coke, Pepsi, etc.
NASDAQ has returned nothing in almost two decades. So if you listened to the gurus 20 years ago and bought and held small growth stocks or funds you earned nothing. The market is irrational so I have zero in stocks right now. I earn 3.75%,on my money and I content with that right now. When the market returns to some semblance of rationality again I will invest in stocks. I do not anticipate that happening any time soon because the fed can not let interest rates be determined by markets. Why you ask? 20 trillion in debt and growing. We can not afford our country’s debt payments at market rates without ballooning the dollary.