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Also, options have helped me, but they're so expensive!
Put it in a balanced fund like Vanguard Wellington. Set it and forget it. Set a goal to focus on your savings rate as a % of your income. How much you earn and what percentage of your earnings you save are things you have much more control over. Set another goal to not look at your mutual fund balance for 10 years. It's going to take at least that long to have a balance worth worrying about.
Even if you don't make it 10 years without checking your balance, you certainly won't check as much. If you still find yourself checking obsessively, take it as a sign that you're not busy enough.
my opinion is in cases like the op's , this is a good example of where a manager may be worth it .
at a younger age it makes little sense mitigating temporary short term dips with things like bonds and balanced portfolio's and permanently hurting long term results .
just get a manager for a percent or less and let them keep you from yourself .
the op should definitely keep away from individual stocks
my opinion is in cases like the op's , this is a good example of where a manager may be worth it .
at a younger age it makes little sense mitigating temporary short term dips with things like bonds and balanced portfolio's and permanently hurting long term results .
just get a manager for a percent or less and let them keep you from yourself .
the op should definitely keep away from individual stocks
A manager is the stupidest idea I've ever heard. Pay someone an average of 25% of my gains. No thanks! I'd prefer to buy and hold and index fund.
That won't help with the obsession. It might actually exacerbate it, because individual stock-quotes require some digging, whereas the S&P-500 is on the ticker at every television screen, billboard and airport waiting-lounge.
There is no reason that a long-term investor needs to watch stock market prices during daytime trading hours. It is best to ignore it. Once a day after the market closes is adequate.
But I think the real issue is that people have become more nervous since the market correction began. That is an understandable reaction. Things will get back to normal once the correction has played out and we are off to the races again.
A manager is the stupidest idea I've ever heard. Pay someone an average of 25% of my gains. No thanks! I'd prefer to buy and hold and index fund.
then you need the ability to stay the course no matter what . if you can great . if not you are making a mistake trying to invest as you are not cut out for it if you can't stay in good and bad times without freaking out . that means no trying to time when you think you should be in or out .
the truth is a vanguard study shows most small investors can get 2 to 3% more in returns by having a manager handle things then they get on their own because they are prone to bad investor behavior. most never even get the returns their funds got as they attempt to time things .
many investors go far more conservative than they should be left to their own devices using balanced funds on long term money . they would be better off paying a manager 1% and let that manger go 100% equities . the difference over decades between a balanced fund and 100% equities is big even after that 1% fee
many times it is penny wise and pound foolish as they say
Last edited by mathjak107; 05-25-2018 at 07:45 AM..
Just invest it and don't come back on these boards! If you come back, you become part of the worrying everyday peeps. Go about your life, have kids if you don't have any. If you have kids, engage them in music, sports, hobbies. Then after 30 years, see that your money grew!
I have about 130k of my own money to invest, but anytime I put it in I worry so much and check the stocks at least every hour everyday! The problem is I'm a very tight person who likes to take risks if that makes sense. I just can't bring myself to invest and forget. Then if he market or a stock I was thinking of buying goes up a lot, I drive myself crazy over it. I stopped investing for a year because of this. Is anyone else like this and how do you cope?
if you are going crazy then you dont really like to take risks. invest your money according to your risk tolerance, which is low.
even that tends to fail . those so risk averse have lower trigger points . any losses trigger bad investor behavior . there is no study that found more conservative investors stay the course any better .
bad behavior just has lower trigger points the more gun shy you are . this why vanguard found management can add a lot of value to these gun shy investors . .
Unless you get some help for your nerves and obsessiveness, you'll just shoot yourself in the foot and have a miserable ride over the next umpteen years of being invested in the market. You have to be prepared to invest for the long term when going into the equity markets (or else learn how to do short term/technical/swing trading from some experts).
If you can't manage to not obsess, then save yourself the hassle and figure out something else to do with your money, whether that's own some real estate or build your own business or something. Mental state should not be minimized in the equation, and you've got some barriers to overcome there.
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