...is starting to make my neck sore looking up then dowwwwwwwwwwwn.

-120,000 and falling....

Mf

Buy quality and stay in it for the long run, ALWAYS! If you sell now, you lock in your loss. Right now it is a paper loss. Sell and you take a REAL hit.

Had all my series 6, 63, 65, and 7 licenses, and I've seen people panic and sell at the absolute wrong time.

If you are at retirement age, stocks should make up a small percentage of your portfolio.

Once again, the media is not your friend. They are doing what they do best, instilling panic. I would love to draw and quarter a few of these panic mongerers in Time Square. They have literally been the cause for half of the panic and decline in our financial system.

I agree Dogfish. The media is making a circus out of this whole thing.

Like most things, it's best to do the opposite of the masses.

It will be ok. Up and down, and the market continues to shake itself out. Too much paronoia, trust neeeds to return. Americans have short memories, and this one will too fade, just give it time.

Thats an easy comment for us younger folk to say mike. for some who are at or near retirement this is causing them great pain. At some point the media needs to get its ass kicked for such blatant misinforming the public.

Dogfish,

I hear ya'. I have a small IRA that I've not be able to make tax deferred contributions to since 1992. It won't amount to a hill'a'beans toward my retirement. Since I'm building a house and would like to have the smallest possible mortgage as I head toward retirement, I thought I would cash in the IRA, and along with my GF's equity from her condo, we'd buy down the construction loan when the house is finished. Since 9/30, the IRA has lost about 24% of its paper value, so cashing it out would lock in that loss. On the other hand, even down 24%, it's over 5 times what I put in it when I was making the IRA contributions in 1985-91. It doesn't seem so bad in that view. I guess an alternative is that the mortgage payments will be affordable while I continue to work, so maybe leave the IRA alone for a few more years, and refinance and buy down the mortgage when I actually do retire. What does the banker think?

Sg

If I were you, I'd cash out now before Pelosi and the other Robber Barons put a "windfall" tax on your retirement accounts.

I'm not a banker and haven't run your numbers, but that's probably what I'd vote for. What Andy said above was rock solid and great advice for those willing to listen.

Your line of thought seems to jive with mine.

I'm sure Andy will set us straight if that line of thought is bogus.

Time for a new avatar, Salmo. You need something back up there.

Salmo,

In your situation, you should be fine to cash out because you are not depending on it for long term income. That said, you probably should be invested in about 30-40% equities right now, and 60-70% fixed income funds if you are retired.

You might wish to hold for a while and sell out of your equity holdings into money markets on a high point. I'm sure there is information available on the share price of the mutual funds that you are invested in so you can track them on MSN or some other stock/fund tracking service. That way you could mitigate your losses somewhat. You might end up with another $1-3M or so to put down on your house. Hopefully there is either online or telephone access to the company who holds your fund accounts. That way you can trade out of those funds into the money market portion, then request a withdrawal when you get closer to finishing your home. This will lock in a loss for you.

If you want to talk about this offline, send me your phone number via PM, I'll look at your funds for you, and tell you what I know about them.

I would not suggest this strategy for anyone who is planning to hold their mutual funds until retirement, where retirement is 5-10 years away.

Funny Hank, I didn't see anything like presented during the campaign..............................

Must be more of that whole 'stelth muslim socialism' stuff I keep reading about on the right wing sites.


I, for one, will be glad to see the current brand of 'Republicans' kicked to the curb by the electorate, and then maybe your party will get some decent candidates, with some decent ideas.

Sarah Palin ? A joke.
John McCain ? Stands for nothing but his own personal ambition .

The rest of them ?

Getting their asses kicked across the country, from sea to shining sea.

Cutting taxes is the Republican panacea for anything and everything, and frankly looking at the past 8 years, I am hard pressed to say it works.

What is happening here, is the death of an ideology, and the death of 'trickle down', unregulated economic policy.

'Bout time I'd say.

I'd like ta figure out how to get rid of the entire 545 or so back there. There's gotta be 545 of us on this board alone that can do a better and more ethical job than they've been able to do.

I'm about at the point that I'm not voting for any incumbents on any level. It would give the taxpayer a chance to catch our breath before the new guys can figure out how to work together to screw us again.

Parker,

My Kamchatka trout got all distorted in the changeover last year. Since I've only posted a photo once here, it's not like putting up an avatar is second nature to me. Hell, I'm still trying to turn off the fricking automatic numbering in Microsoft Word, the ultimate pos software.

Sg

It's actually very basic. Buy low sell high as we hear all the time. The EMOTION of watching it go down somehow makes us want to sell in order to protect the nest egg. By that time it's too late. Market volatility is what gives the investors the chance to get into a quality stock or other investment at a discount rate. Think of them as a good rod and reel combo that you are watching for a sale price. If a guy could by a Calcutta or a G. Loomis for 60% off he might just jump at the chance. BIG $$$$$$ are just waiting to get back in this market with some movement going on now. I wish I had some BIG $$$$$$ to invest. Oh well, a couple $$ here and a couple $$ there is all I can scrape together. If the Bush Tax cuts are allowed to lapse. Which is a guaranteed event if the Socialist Lib's take total control. The higher taxes that will follow will prevent me from investing in the markets for the foreseeable future. Prices will raise by about 15-20% because of inflation and jobs will disappear faster than you can say Obama! Our economy will change if this happens. Hold on tight guys it could get bumpy.

How The Stock Market Works

Are you currently shaking your head wondering what is going on in the world
financial markets? Here is a wee story that illustrates it nicely:


"Once upon a time, in a village, a man appeared and announced to the
villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each.

The villagers, seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the
forest and started catching them.

The man bought thousands at $10 and, as supply started to diminish, the
villagers stopped their effort. He further announced that he would now buy at
$20 for a monkey. That's called supply and demand. This renewed the efforts
of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again.

Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their
farms. The offer increased to $25 each, and the supply of monkeys became so
small that it was an effort to even find a monkey, let alone catch it!


The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on behalf of him.

In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers. "Look at all
these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to
you at $35, and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for $50 each."

The villagers rounded up all their savings and bought all the monkeys.

They never saw the man nor his assistant again, only worthless monkeys
everywhere!

So, now you have a better understanding of how the stock market works."

Great, my retirement will be financed by worthless monkeys.

That's all that we all are left with is worthless monkeys.

I have a few monkeys I would like to trade for toilet paper to clean up the mess that is Wall Street.

I'm going to spank my monkey. That'll teach him.