So how come no posts about money lost?

[kittensaver]

Not calculating or posting yet because the market is still in considerable flux. Waiting and seeing and hoping to not get slammed too hard . . . .

You're right, most of us are "in it" for the long haul. Counting up losses in the middle of wild fluctuations runs directly counter to the long-haul philosophy.

Sez me. YMMV.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

I just haven't looked.

[teen persuasion]

I was counting shares rather than $.  I bought on Monday, and while trying to guess where the price would end the day I was figuring out how many extra shares I got, vs if I'd bought a month ago or so.

Or you can take my DH's view: it's all imaginary.

[Gardening Grandma]

I hate market gyrations. The only thing I did was a Roth conversion yesterday - to take advantage of the drop.

[sapphire12]

Smart move GG!

[Lizard Queen]

I'm not even sure how much I had at the peak.  I've been waiting for this to throw some more money in, which I did as the market dropped.  So, I'm not looking at it so much as a loss, but a buying opportunity.

[Deleted]

I don't look when its going down. As far as I'm concerned I'm still at my latest milestone.

[sapphire12]

I bought a few more ETF and mutual fund shares on Friday in my Roth. The other accts, I just let it ride down.

[Artemis Windsong]

I have a nest egg for bargain shopping but haven't looked at anything.

It's my starting over fund.  Sounds dismal doesn't it. 

[Deleted]

What's done is done.  We don't need it to eat or keep the lights on. We've lost $30K+.  But I didn't feel the need to post about the awesome gains we got before the loss.  I truly understand the risk/reward profit and we've made our choices.

[8 Bit WWBG]

I'm still trying to remind myself it is a nice "sale".  Though that sports car is looking mighty tempting right now.

[ken a.k.a OMK]

It's only on paper unless you sell. The DOW closed today about where it was last October. We had a big run up since then. In 2008 we where still working and investing as much as we could. Now, being retired I'm just watching.

[tallguy]

So how come no posts about money lost?

My first market investments were in January of 1987, nine months before Black Monday.  I realized very quickly that the only people who truly lost money were those who sold and locked in their losses.  My totals are down, but I haven't really lost anything yet. 

If I consider that my financial assets would now cover only about 22-23 years of spending at current levels instead of 25 it might bother me, but I haven't retired yet.  I have been expecting a downturn for about two years, so now we got it.  We'll see how long it lasts.  The only thing that concerned me before was that I didn't want to retire INTO a down market.  That was also the biggest reason for holding as much cash as I have been, in case it happened.  

[Waffle]

Aug 26, 2015 19:30:28 GMT -5 The Walk of the Penguin Mich said:

I just haven't looked.

Call me an ostrich - but I don't really want to know.  I'll look sometime later after things calm down - whenever that might be.  I do wonder if I'll have the stomach for this after I retire.

[CCL]

Well, I checked my brokerage account today and saw my favorite fund hit a 52 week low, so I put in an order to buy several thousand dollars more. I assume it went thru but haven't bothered to check.

When I checked Monday, I think my account was about even for the year. The 401k, I don't know. Since we retired, I don't do much with it, just verify the monthly deposit to checking goes thru.

[phil5185]

Call me an ostrich - but I don't really want to know. I'll look sometime later after things calm down - whenever that might be. I do wonder if I'll have the stomach for this after I retire

In AZ it's too HOT to put your head in the sand - so we had to watch each dollar fly away.  (Are retirees s'posed to do something different? lol)

We did the same thing that we did in 1987, 2001, 2008, yada - nothing!

[ken a.k.a OMK]

  Actually in 2008 we were both still working and investing the max into our 401k's and maxing the catchup. Bought low.

[msventoux]

I haven't looked.  I did however initiate a purchase using my final 401(k) contributions for the year.  Hopefully I got a good deal. 

[Deleted]

I haven't looked. I typically update my accounts at month end.  It won't be pretty and, since DH and I are both retired, we're not throwing new money into the market.  That always helped in past recoveries.

Fortunately, the money we set aside for work on the house we just bought and the money we need to get us through the end of the year is all in cash.  Our withdrawal rate will be under 4% this year and that's with $50K to do the work on the house and an expensive vacation to Iceland.  We'll be OK.

And somehow we're getting to Iceland next year even if we have to sell a car to do it!

[The Captain]

I'll bite. My accounts were down from their peak by $100K in the past week. I'm still a long term investor so I consider it "normal" market corrections/fluctuations.

Doesn't mean my stomach churned a little, but I've learned not to be reactionary.

[Shooby]

Nobody on the internet ever loses money, lol. We are all market geniuses with positive cash flow at all times! lol

[cronewitch]

I was down about 155K but made 30K today. Part of mine was spending since I took some out to spend so down about 50K before it even turned. I gave my niece 16K and her son 6K and spent some and loaned a little besides market fluctuation.

[yogiii]

I usually check at the end of the month.  I reached a big milestone in Feb, so I'll probably dip back under again and be yo-yoing that milestone the next who knows how long.

[Wisconsin Beth]

Aug 26, 2015 19:30:28 GMT -5 The Walk of the Penguin Mich said:

I just haven't looked.

I don't wanna look and you can't make me!       

In seriousness, I'm 45.  While my window of time is closing, I've got somewhere between 10-25 more years of work/investing.  My job often allows an 85 and out - 55 years of age with 30 years of employment.  But my kids will be starting college around then and I'd like to be able to help them some. 

[buystoys]

Like tallguy, I've been expecting a correction for a couple of years.  In fact, I figured it would happen within six months of our decision to retire in late 2013. 

While it's been difficult to ignore the talking heads and just stay the course, I've managed to do that.  We've got enough cash on hand to get through two years without selling if we hold off on all the home projects, but we've decided to go ahead with at least the smaller ones at this point.  I've struggled with not picking at my original plan(s) to do IRA to Roth conversions in December, but I know that if I start to "time" my actions to the market now, I'll begin double thinking everything in the plan and that wouldn't be a good thing in the long run.  So I'm just sticking to the plan and listening to DH's reassurances that we didn't get to this point by accident.  We got here because we each had made a plan and stuck to it. 

But it does feel better when the market goes up! 

[thyme4change]

LOL - I was just thinking last night that I should post what I told my husband:

We had lost enough money in the market, that we could have paid off our house.  (Of course, we still would have lost a bunch in the market - so whatever.)  But it just seemed like a lot of frickin' money.  

It will all be okay.  I expect it to recover nicely in the next 15 or 20 years.

[swamp]

I haven't looked.

I'm kind of bummed we don't have the extra money to toss in some investments right now.

[Bonny]

Aug 26, 2015 20:30:26 GMT -5 Waffle said:

Aug 26, 2015 19:30:28 GMT -5 The Walk of the Penguin Mich said:

I just haven't looked.

Call me an ostrich - but I don't really want to know.  I'll look sometime later after things calm down - whenever that might be.  I do wonder if I'll have the stomach for this after I retire.

This! I didn't open up my 457 statements for six months after October of 2007.

<Bonny sticks her fingers in her ears and starts humming La la la la la>

ETA: This ALWAYS happens after we do a major home improvement.

[Deleted]

I thought we were going down to 12000 people... We're going back up again? 

[ArchietheDragon]

Aug 27, 2015 9:19:15 GMT -5 Bonny said:

Aug 26, 2015 20:30:26 GMT -5 Waffle said:

Call me an ostrich - but I don't really want to know.  I'll look sometime later after things calm down - whenever that might be.  I do wonder if I'll have the stomach for this after I retire.

This! I didn't open up my 457 statements for six months after October of 2007.

<Bonny sticks her fingers in her ears and starts humming La la la la la>

ETA: This ALWAYS happens after we do a major home improvement.

Better than happening right before a major home improvement.