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This ^. It is getting harder and harder to read about all the discord about the nation's political situation, no matter what side you are on. I am gradually replacing all my Firefox bookmarks of current news/investing with those containing happier stories, and music...and this forum, naturally!
Sigh... up or down, the trend now, & probably for the foreseeable future, is volatility.
So on Thursday I decided to do most of this year's financial business, this is the day after the "big drop" last week. I figured a good time to move funds from the IRA to the Roth when they were cheaper. I also bought into more stock funds in the IRA for the same reason because I had a too conservative allocation this last 18 months of only 33% equities & almost 25% cash.
So while plowing the fields of finance for a hour or so shifting money & selecting funds, etc... when I finished the market had already recovered 200+ points & finished twice that an hour later when the markets closed & the price my funds would settle at! I know only a blip in the long view but still...
I'm more invested in equities now, close to 50%, because I'm betting the underlying economy & low unemployment will eventually trump Brexit, tariffs & whatever monkey business erupts in DC 2019. But that's a nervous bet.
I guess I'm investing more on a good 2020 than 2019, I may have a bit more to allocate to equities next year when I rebalance, but it's still a pause when I look at the recent first downward trend of my pile since I retired a few years ago.
During a Federal Government Shutdown, slightly over 83% of the Federal Government continues on, business as usual. Social Security checks are distributed. We still have a Military. The FBI continues to chase bad guys.
Dividend payers tend to be companies that can't find a better use for the money. Personally, I prefer companies that pay no dividends whatsoever - they reinvest in the business rather than send payments out of the company.
Santa Rally?!?! Maybe market will go up for a while but the SPY started its downtrend last January 16 and has yet to gain back to that period. IWM and SPY along with the UUP are trending up ONLY BECAUSE the Plunger Team went in last Friday and brought the market up over the weekend. Along with WFC selling $64B in bonds and buying into the stock market. Let's see where it goes for January 2019 before we SOP!!
Please note that what you're saying above is you will have a suboptimal asset allocation for the next 30 days (too much in cash).
That remains to be seen. We'll know in February. I got out in Sept. so missed about 4000 pts of the drop. Obviously, I wish I had went all in last Monday but didn't miss it completely. I think Jan. could be brutal depending on the shutdown, border closings, Mueller report, impeachment hearings, Syria, and other political issues. If so, I'll be glad to mostly miss it. I'm still maxing out 401K and getting 50% match.
During a Federal Government Shutdown, slightly over 83% of the Federal Government continues on, business as usual. Social Security checks are distributed. We still have a Military. The FBI continues to chase bad guys.
It is, for the most part, a non-event.
Which is why the Federal Government has sample letters for employees to send their creditors to catch a break
And Trump is freezing federal workers salaries in 2019
Because all of those government workers are Democrats...
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