Investments strategy with new administration?

[mikester]

S&P 500 is up nearly 200% in past 10 years. Combine that with your own contributions over the last 10 years and, well, you do the math...

$1000 ten years ago would have been $2000 five years ago and $4000 today. Quadrupling your net worth in the past 10 years was easily possible.

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It was up about 85% in the past 5 years. Combine that with your own contributions and you could have easily doubled your net worth during the last administration.

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Dollar cost averaging is the key.

With that said, and us nearing retirement age, I don't want to experience the minor setbacks like 2008 and Covid19. So considering moving to less risky investments at this point in our lives.

S&P 500 is a winners list which is updated quarterly. Losers are dropped off the list.

Essentially they are listing stocks when they are considered high and un-listing them when they hit their lows. So are you buying high and selling low?

Remember ENRON? NORTEL?

A Closer Look at the S&P 500

https://ca.rbcwealthmanagement.com/delegate/services/file/592736/content

 

[duffer]

I would never presume to give any of you advice, but I will share a few facts.

• Since the dawn of the stock market, the S&P has returned (on avg) about 8% a year. The last 2 years have been phenomenal "outliers". Expecting 20%+ regularly is fools play IMO.
• Mutual funds have some of the highest internal fees (often not disclosed)
• Most mutual funds are not tax efficient. (look at their Turnover ratio) You can actually loose money on the MF, and still have a taxable cap gain distribution at the end of the year.
• ETF's have some of the lowest fees, and can be far more tax efficient.
• Interest on US Treasuries are tax exempt from any State income tax (vs money mkts, bonds)
• Less than 10% of Money Mgrs out perform the S&P 500.

Do you know what you own? Example: There are about 470'ish ETF's in the marketplace. Apple is one of the top 15 holdings in about 400 of them.

 

[RSKY]

Do you know what you own? Example: There are about 470'ish ETF's in the marketplace. Apple is one of the top 15 holdings in about 400 of them.

One thing I have learned is to look at the top ten holdings of a fund before getting in it. Too many funds have the same stocks, just in differing quantities. The fund that I have the most invested in varies between 22-28% of one stock which concerns me.

RSKY

 

[ultrarunner]

My family is market adverse…

Grandparents newly married in 1927 took their nest egg and invested in the market…

Apparently the roaring 20’s appropriately describes the post war boom.

They lost their shirt and spent the next decade digging out… Dad born in 1927 got a paper route at age 9 turning over everything to the folks…

As a young child my grandmother pointed to homes people lost… made it very real.

 

[Oaktree]

I see a MONSTER potential in Crypto and it is just getting started. The learning curve is super steep but there are resources available if you have the interest. I'm slowly putting very small amounts of new money into the crypto blue chips that have the potential to do what Bitcoin has done. I'm still kicking myself for not buying a bitcoin when I first learned about it at $250. It is now over $100,000. Who knows what a very small investment in one of these other coins/blockchains/tokens might grown to.

No crypto for me. One of the investing sages once said don't invest in anything you don't understand, and to me crypto is a complete mystery. Any explanations of it I've read just make the water even muddier than it was. I see it as complete vaporware, and can't believe it's a sustainable investment.

I also have some land, and I'm wondering if it will continue to increase in value like it has in the last few years, or will people dump land and put their money into the Market?

From what I've seen before, the value of land seems to go up when the Market is unstable. But when the economy is doing great, then people want to cash out and buy Stocks for a greater return then they are getting with land.

I guess that depends on where you live. I don't think I've ever seen land values decline any appreciable amount around here, regardless of how the economy's doing.

I have Rolex watches, and enjoy wearing them, but with the average person using their phone as a time piece, any watch is becoming a thing of the past. Kind of like what happened with pocket watches, as very few people carry them.
Used Rolex watch values have dropped over the past couple years when inflation is factored in. Rolex Corp likes to argue this, saying the values dip and raise... but the bottom line is, they aren't appreciating.

Never understood the whole thing about Rolexes. Clearly a status symbol, but why? Is it one of those "I-can-afford-this-overly-expensive-piece-and-you-can't-NYA NYA NYA" or is there something more to it? I don't move in those circles.

 

[gsganzer]

Never understood the whole thing about Rolexes. Clearly a status symbol, but why? Is it one of those "I-can-afford-this-overly-expensive-piece-and-you-can't-NYA NYA NYA" or is there something more to it? I don't move in those circles.

It's like YETI coolers. I've heard them referred to as redneck Rolexes.

 

[2manyrocks]

My family is market adverse…

Grandparents newly married in 1927 took their nest egg and invested in the market…

Apparently the roaring 20’s appropriately describes the post war boom.

They lost their shirt and spent the next decade digging out… Dad born in 1927 got a paper route at age 9 turning over everything to the folks…

As a young child my grandmother pointed to homes people lost… made it very real.

The generation that lived through that era has a completely different perspective.

 

[gsganzer]

The generation that lived through that era has a completely different perspective.

Absolutely. My folks were both risk-adverse. My mom grew up in post-war Europe and my dad's folks lost their store and livelihood to the great depression. Both lived very austere lives.

 

[1Mech]

I do too, but I’m considering an IRA rollover.

I thought about that, now if I need some money out of TSP, I transfer a portion into my IRA at Schwab, where I have check writing available. Even after taking out ~58K, my TSP balance is larger than when I started withdrawals.

 

[Snobdds]

Send money (which you seem to have too much). $100,000 should build a nice one

Does that even cover the dirt work for this shelter?

But yes I agree, you should already be in hiding with your family. One must take precautions under such fascist times.