Investing for Retirement

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Michael
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Re: Investing for Retirement

Post by Michael »

I just did a 3 fund portfolio re-balance due to the market shift. Stay the course.

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sighyoung
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Re: Investing for Retirement

Post by sighyoung »

I'm beginning to practice saying, "Would you like fries with that?"

greenback44
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Re: Investing for Retirement

Post by greenback44 »

Michael wrote:
February 28 20, 10:36 am
I just did a 3 fund portfolio re-balance due to the market shift. Stay the course.
Oh, boy. That will leave a mark. I like your mortgage idea better.

I'm kicking myself. I had reached my stretch FIRE goal in January. I work with someone who grew up in Wuhan, so in January I had a pretty good idea that we were looking at a pandemic, I just didn't know when it would hit here. I didn't sell my equity balance, mainly because I didn't want to take a decent-sized (and nothing more than that) tax hit. Just dumb.

I hate holding stocks. If you live a pretty simple life, like I do, and you've made pretty good money, like I have, then they're too [expletive] risky. In most scenarios you need something to balance interest rate risks (reinvestment rates too low / market value of securities demolished by interest rate increases), but using equities as a hedge is like using a chainsaw to trim your finger nails. They're just not appropriate for people who don't need growth.

Now I need to go look at some dumb ideas like 95% in a total bond fund and 5% in S&P500 ATM call options.

Michael
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Re: Investing for Retirement

Post by Michael »

greenback44 wrote:
March 13 20, 11:17 pm
Michael wrote:
February 28 20, 10:36 am
I just did a 3 fund portfolio re-balance due to the market shift. Stay the course.
Oh, boy. That will leave a mark. I like your mortgage idea better.

I'm kicking myself. I had reached my stretch FIRE goal in January. I work with someone who grew up in Wuhan, so in January I had a pretty good idea that we were looking at a pandemic, I just didn't know when it would hit here. I didn't sell my equity balance, mainly because I didn't want to take a decent-sized (and nothing more than that) tax hit. Just dumb.

I hate holding stocks. If you live a pretty simple life, like I do, and you've made pretty good money, like I have, then they're too [expletive] risky. In most scenarios you need something to balance interest rate risks (reinvestment rates too low / market value of securities demolished by interest rate increases), but using equities as a hedge is like using a chainsaw to trim your finger nails. They're just not appropriate for people who don't need growth.

Now I need to go look at some dumb ideas like 95% in a total bond fund and 5% in S&P500 ATM call options.
That sucks. Once I hit my fire number I'm going with a 60/40 equity to bond fund ratio. My international fund allocation will continue to be 30% of my equities.

I sold equities on the way up and I've been buying equities on the way down. It's fine. My methodology, job and age make it easy to not sweat the swings too much.

I actually lucked out with the mortgage. Right before the crash I exercised a bunch of my company options (my riskiest asset) and paid off my mortgage in full. My company stock is off around 27% right now, so I feel really fortunate. Like I said earlier, I wanted to cool off my portfolio a bit and paying down my mortgage was the easiest way to do it. The timing of the move was pure luck. Now that I have no house payment, I just changed the mortgage payment to a monthly equity purchase in my taxable account. I only purchase bond funds in my 401k for tax efficiency purposes.

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Radbird
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Re: Investing for Retirement

Post by Radbird »

I should’ve worked another year.

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sighyoung
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Re: Investing for Retirement

Post by sighyoung »

What are the going rates for plasma these days?

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Joe Shlabotnik
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Re: Investing for Retirement

Post by Joe Shlabotnik »

At least here in Oregon assisted suicide is legal.

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Radbird
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Re: Investing for Retirement

Post by Radbird »

Joe Shlabotnik wrote:
March 17 20, 1:39 pm
At least here in Oregon assisted suicide is legal.
Commies

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Leroy
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Re: Investing for Retirement

Post by Leroy »

sighyoung wrote:
March 17 20, 12:46 pm
What are the going rates for plasma these days?
You can get one for a hundred bucks on Ebay right now. Which is about the level of my 401k.

It's a huge benefit to pay the 10% early withdrawal penalty now that it isn't worth squat.

Half full baby.

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Radbird
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Re: Investing for Retirement

Post by Radbird »

My retirement funds are doing swell. In fact when this is all over, we’re going to replan our trip to Rome and Florence. I hear Georgia and Alabama are nice in the fall.

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