Thanks for the reply. Yes, many times. I am no financial guru, and most of the time I have entrusted my savings to "professional investors". This is the end result.
I guess it doesn't surprise me that things go down five times faster than they go up. But after about five or six cycles of that, it's gotten old.
Question would be, what are the "right" investments? Seems like I ask ten different people and will get ten different answers.
I am a strong believer in low-cost index funds. These days there are exchange-traded funds which act just like stocks, but are really low cost index funds.
A lot of people do pretty well just buying and holding SPY, which is a S&P 500 fund.
If you are more venturesome, QQQ is the NASDAQ 100 fund, which is a lot more volatile than the S&P 500. More gains in good years, more losses in bad, but over the past decade, certainly more gains.
Put half your money in each one and pretend you are Rip van Winkle.
Send the "professionals'" kids to community college and retire like a prince.