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anyone here totally miss this astonishing bull market that we in? What was your reason for missing it? Did not have money to invest? Just kept your money on the sidelines? Any other reasons?
I read that 47% of Americans have missed the market because they don't even own investments due to lack of savings. And a sizable percentage of those who own investments own very little, not even to have seriously benefited which is quite shocking.
anyone here totally miss this astonishing bull market that we in? What was your reason for missing it? Did not have money to invest? Just kept your money on the sidelines? Any other reasons?
I read that 47% of Americans have missed the market because they don't even own investments due to lack of savings. And a sizable percentage of those who own investments own very little, not even to have seriously benefited which is quite shocking.
It doesn't surprise me at all that many have missed out on the stock market gains. Stagnating wages combined with a constantly rising cost of living keeps many living paycheck to paycheck with nothing left over to save or invest. We also have employers cutting benefits such as 401K matching, and more people than ever work contract/temporary jobs which provide no benefits at all, so they are also paying the full cost of rising health insurance premiums.
It is disturbing that someone doesn't even know if he has a 401K or not. We need to start teaching basic financial literacy to all of America's young people. I can't even imagine what the lives of the younger generations who will not be recieving pensions are going to look like around retirement age. Even if Social security is not cut in the coming decades, it will not be enough to keep many of these people out of poverty.
This is a big problem as the difference between the haves and have nots just keeps increasing - those who have managed to purchase housing and stocks have seen their wealth triple (for essentially doing nothing) and it continues to skyrocket because of the monetary policies in Washington trying to keep inflating those assets. This wealth disparity does not really bode well for the stability of society as it creates polarized groups which leads to higher levels of social dysfunction and crime. That is my opinion anyway.
It's not just the have nots. I've read enough threads here and at bogleheads for several years about fear of an impending crash to suspect that a good percentage of the "haves" have missed a significant portion of the bull as well, sitting on the sidelines waiting for a pullback that never came.
those who have managed to purchase housing and stocks have seen their wealth triple (for essentially doing nothing)
I'm not sure I follow you here.
My wife and I purchased stocks, and once owned a house. However nobody just handed us a big pile of money to buy stocks or houses, we spent years putting in the hard work and making the choices to accumulate assets to invest. Maybe you consider going into debt to put oneself through college while working side jobs then spend years working hard to pay it off and living under ones's means to build some wealth is "essentially doing nothing" but it sure didn't seem that way at the time.
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I'll be the first to admit, I pulled back on stocks and upped on bonds after Trump's win. I was lucky enough to figure out this was going to be a sustained surge and got aggressive again shortly thereafter though. I've not had the gains of many, but playing it conservative at six years from retirement is not a crime. I've pulled back a couple of other times temporarily while I watched things sort themselves out. Still though, my gains have been over 10% since the election. Not too shabby while playing it fairly conservatively.
This is a big problem as the difference between the haves and have nots just keeps increasing - those who have managed to purchase housing and stocks have seen their wealth triple (for essentially doing nothing) and it continues to skyrocket because of the monetary policies in Washington trying to keep inflating those assets. This wealth disparity does not really bode well for the stability of society as it creates polarized groups which leads to higher levels of social dysfunction and crime. That is my opinion anyway.
essentially doing nothing ?
not quite .
passive investing is your money working for you while you work for your money trying to get enough together so you can have it work for you .
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