401-KO'd

Scary, ain't it?

 

I thought the same thing. Recycling pays back 20% of the cost of beer? Get me some of that.

 

I have put in about $8,000 so far this year . . . account is down about $40,000.

I just keep telling myself, "I'm buying cheap now. I'm buying cheap now . . . "

 

I hate to be a braggart, but I am up one and a half percent this year. I got out of the market completely last october or november. Thank god.

 

Do what Warren Buffet is doing, keep buying. Now is the time to buy (admittedly different if you are retiring or already retired). History shows that eventually the market will rise again. Investing means having the stomach to ride out the drops. If you look back to 2001, if you had bought eBay, Google, Wells Fargo and say GE, you'd have done pretty well. Diversify and keep investing. Trying to time the market is one of the most difficult things and will have you missing out on some gains.

 

Too bad we all went along like sheep when 401-Ks were introduced to phase out defined benefit pension plans back in the '80s.

The introduction of 401-Ks was corporate pension relief disguised as an employee benefit. Luckily, we haven't bought into the privatization of social security.

Now, hopefully, we resoundingly reject McCain's plan to relieve corporations of their health insurance responsibilities by sticking everyone with a $5,000 tax credit instead.

People need to wake up about these things.

 

Past results are no guarantee of future performance. I am not saying that you are wrong, but the economy in 2008 and 2009 won't be in the same place as it was in 2001.

 

There's no way it can be..

 

That's my thought. I'm not even going to look at this statement, because I can guess what it says.

 

Look at a DJIA chart from '29 through (say) '59, and try not to gag.

 

We need another scam or ponzi scheme. We've already blown thru high-tech and finance this decade - and the Enron energy scam wasn't market-wide. What's next on the horizon?

 

Land...
"Son, stocks may rise and fall, utilities and transportation systems may collapse. People are no damn good, but they will always need land and they'll pay through the nose to get it! Remember," my father said...