Don’t do it! Horde the cash you already have or that’s coming in, but leave the stock alone. Things are so bad with the stock market right now that you will get very little if you cash out. If you leave the stocks alone, however, they may be worth a great deal in five or ten years. Try to hang in there without cashing out stocks.
Major credit-crisis induced recessions in the developed world are most often followed by protracted (5-15 year) equity slumps that drop well below long-term moving averages, that destroy ALL inflation-adjusted equity price gains since previous troughs, and that bottom when P/E ratios and dividend yields are substantially below long-term averages. We are at about average right now.
That means that buying equities now is betting that this is a run-of-the-mill, routine cyclical downturn with a return to a 2004-like environment within 1 year. However, if you believe that this is a once-in-a-lifetime structural retrenching - even if not as extreme as 1873 or 1929 or Japan 1989 - history points more to DJIA below 6000.
Yes, but do you continue contributing to your 401K? I’ve seriously questioned it... especially if he goes through with taking those over as well. Excuse me... let me rephrase that. If I’m asked to “involuntarily donate” my 401K to Dear Leader, that is.
I think that’s great advice you gave her. Some are too concentrated investment wise, that’s the vibe I’m getting.
I don’t own much ind. stock right now, but what I do, it’s down bad. OTOH, it is a great teacher - happy I didn’t put everything on that stock, ouch. I cashed out of equities prior to recent unp easantness.
I was convinced that I must own that sector, and it did go up, but I didn’t cash in any of it. “I’m so smart, hang on to _that_. :) I’m down 1900 bucks on a 2400 investment. Not much in the big picture there. But I own those shares... The markets come back - every time - tho I ain’t Rip Van Wink e.
Stocks are going a lot lower. Probably somewhere between 4k-6k. This ‘recession’ is not going to be over in 6 months. The credit bubble still has several more YEARS to unwind. Option ARMs/Alt As start resetting in mass at the end of this year and escalate until around the end of 2012.