I sold out all my individual stocks early this year. The market is not good. And I have a busy day time job.

But how about mutual funds? Is anybody selling or re-allocating stock based index funds?

 

Sold some stocks today; stocks I had intended to keep, but the profit was there and I took it. I'm about even with PFE, but will hang with it for now.

Hi, I felt it was a good time to continue my dcaing. I bought mutual funds that will help me in my diversification of stock. Bought Large Cap Index (vlacx) and Small Cap Value (visvx) and Fundamental Investors (ancfx) It seemed like Monday was a good time to put a little money in the "down" market. Best to all

This is a good time to remember to have a clear investment policy statement on rebalancing (e.g., once a year, percentage "off" bands, etc.) then follow it. Our day-to-day emotions can throw us off a good plan.

And of course it is always good to go slow and remember that 

"It is the second mouse that gets the cheese."
 

I have not been active in this forum in at least a couple of years. But the events of the last week or so, have pushed me back here. I am not pulling any money out, as I don't have enough cash invested in my IRA to retire on, and what I have would be destroyed by taxes and the penalty fee. But I was counting on withdrawing several thousand dollars yearly, starting in mid-2010, to make it easier to live. 

I'm not old enough to have personal experience with the past big nose-dives (age 57+), so this frightens me possibly too much. Is there anything positive that I can focus on? Is there a way to predict when the bottom will arrive? I don't believe it is here yet. Is it likely that the election can turn things around? Thanks.

Holly 

HollySue:

I have not been active in this forum in at least a couple of years. But the events of the last week or so, have pushed me back here. I am not pulling any money out, as I don't have enough cash invested in my IRA to retire on, and what I have would be destroyed by taxes and the penalty fee. But I was counting on withdrawing several thousand dollars yearly, starting in mid-2010, to make it easier to live. 

I don't understand this.  If you sell stocks in your IRA and leave the cash in your IRA, you don't pay any taxes or penalties on that.

 

HollySue:

 

I'm not old enough to have personal experience with the past big nose-dives (age 57+), so this frightens me possibly too much. Is there anything positive that I can focus on? Is there a way to predict when the bottom will arrive? I don't believe it is here yet. Is it likely that the election can turn things around? Thanks.

Holly 

You would have been about 50 during the last big nosedive.

Focus on this - oil prices are going down and inflation is no longer a threat.  Housing prices will probably stabilize in 2009.  Through all of this financial crisis, the US economy keeps on keepin' on.  Unemployment is up and that is not good, but it is hovering around 6%, which in times past used to be considered full employment.

On the international front, we are winning the war in Iraq and building a democracy in an arab country.  As a consequence, Islamic terrorists are falling out of favor in some arab countries as young arabs have hope they can live a middle class life.  Brazil, once a beggar at the door of the world bank, is now a shining example of capitalsm. 

I heard an analyst on TV say "But this time is different". He meant credit crisis is once in a hundred years big crisis, which nobody have ever seen before.

And I heard once a writer jokes about buy and hold investors like "Driving a car only look at the rear view mirror. And hope the road ahead is the same as the road behind."

So I just have to hope for the best - hold all my current investment positions. And prepare for the worst - cancelled my next cruise vacation plan.

Any better ideas?

Double8:

After today's market, is anybody considering selling or re-allocating their stock based index funds?

No.  I can't come up with a better plan than the one I'm already following.

- Tom

Seems like a terrible time to sell, the worst possible time to sell. I have been following a reallocation strategy of increasing stock exposure this year, and it has been painful. I try to buy on down days, but can't keep pace with a down market. I have lost money. I figure to buy more stocks,probably vdaix. I am pretty satisfied with current allocation, but I think stocks may be seriously oversold. Seems like there is a lot of forced liquidation, as well as panic selling. I did sell vivax earlier this year, as it is heavily weighted in financials, and I just don't see the upside. Financials of course are the weakest portion of vdaix. VDAIX is down 9.62% ytd, and VIVAX down 17.8% ytd.