I don’t understand much about finances and/or financial markets, but what I heard is that analists are scratching their heads over what Mnuchin has done over the last day(s) (calling 6 CEO’s of big banks, and trying to, by releasing a statement about it, seemingly, calm traders, and the people).
I wouldn’t be surprised therefore, I say from my gut, that markets are not yet at their lowest.
If I had money (I don’t) I would wait a few days.

I did that in 2008 before the crash, I was completely out before it all went down. Getting out is easy, getting back in is what is hard. I did not dive back in until it was almost completely back. I will not be making that mistake again. I have a long time to work so I can ride it out. It will go down further but come back as it has every time. This go around I’m going to ride it out and keep buying. I’ll make some small moves but I’m going with dollar cost averaging and dividend growth during these volatile times.

Because I work in the securities industry, I am restricted in when and what I can buy or sell. I have a sizable position in one stock but I am locked down until early February. It’s down about ten percent since December 2.

If Trump fires Powell, we will see the circuit breakers kick in to prevent a market free fall. And it may happen more than one time in a week.

I’m holding on to ride it out.

No, we have well situated investments that aren’t as volatile.

I wish.

@ARE_you_kidding_me I know what you mean. I pulled some money out of the market a few years ago before a big dip and never put that money back in. My retirement investments I haven’t touched though, they have been riding out the market for many years. I still have IRA money to add for 2018. I was planning to have put it into the account in October (October is almost always low) and failed to do it, but that seems to have worked in my favor. I’ll get around to moving that money in a day or two. I also promised myself I will do a short term CD this week.

I have more in regular savings than I guess I should, but times like this I’m glad. Although, I did miss some growth I guess.

I’ve been staying the course and dollar cost averaging since the 1980’s. I viewed every stock market dip, bubble pop, crash as buying opportunities. That strategy has worked very well for me.

Even with the stock market being down 3k I’m a happy camper with more money than I’ll ever spend.

I don’t know what the stock market will do next. Who does? But I’m not nervous. I’m just along for the ride. HA!

@gondwanalon Do you buy individual stocks? Do you invest in dividend funds at all?

No, though I wish I did. I am thinking about retiring, and it would have been nice to have the extra cash. I think it will be a few years before the stock market returns to where it was.

No.
When you do that, you don’t know when to buy back in. And the market usually recovers it’s losses in big chunks. It’s easy to miss the come back.

In fact, if I was swimming in cash I would be buying. But I’m not swimming in cash.

Anyway, I am a long way from using what I have in the market to live on. The trend is still your friend.

@JLeslie I buy individual stocks in companies that I really like. I have a lot invested in the S&P 500. Over half of my stocks pay dividends. I only buy no load funds through Vanguard.

I never do any day trading. That is for people who know what they’re doing. HA!

I’ve been contemplating buying more dividend funds for a couple of years and never did it.

Partly, I want to do it because I think it will calm my husband if he can perceive it as income. He doesn’t look at interest or stock gains as income, so it might not work. Plus, our funds just took some losses like everyone.

We sold our business two months ago, and will fall about $1k short every month for paying expenses if I count what I earn and bank interest and CD interest coming due this year. I just don’t want him to get uptight about it. In the scheme of things $12k a year from savings isn’t that big a deal, and I’m sure he will get some sort of job within a few months. $12k a year is almost any part-time job. That’s just living check to check though. Not really check to check, we have savings, but you know what I mean, so we don’t go into our savings.

I want to take a vacation too. Have some fun after being handcuffed to our business for two years.

Hopefully, he gets a great gig or we come up with some other business. We’ll see.

@JLeslie You are smart to invest for your retirement. I worked for a large company that had a 403B plan with lots of well performing stocks and I was shocked to learn how few people didn’t take advantage of it. One guy said it isn’t worth it because the company doesn’t match any money. I relpied that the 403B allows you to invest tax deferred money which puts you into a lower income tax bracket so you can invest more. It was no surprise to me that many people at work didn’t even have an IRA.

I guess that many people in their 20’s and 30’s and even 40’s don’t think that they’ll ever get old. Sad.

I took advantage of 403B, IRA’s and other stock market investing. Even had fun monkeying around with gold bullion (probably a mistake). I’m waiting until age 70 to collect Social Security to get the biggest payout. I don’t need it. But I’ll take it if it is still available.

@gondwanalon An unofficial survey of my high school buddies revealed a shocking trend to me. 1 in ten have retirement savings in any amount. The rest have nothing. Of those 10% probably about a quarter of them are saving enough. I have been investing since I was a teenager and barring any major setbacks I should have just enough around age 60. With people living longer but with more health conditions, the lack of pensions or savings and the cost of healthcare going up…. It’s a bleak future for Generation X and probably Millennials too.

I got started investing in the stock market because my boss kept bugging me about getting an IRA (I was about 35 years old). Just to shut her up I opened up an IRA at Home Savings. Then I had a problem. What companies do I invest in? I was overwhelmed. Charles Schab, Merrill Lynch, Vanguard, Griffin Capital, Prudential etc? Load vs n-load funds?

It forced me to learn at least the very basics of investing. I also relied on simple common sense (and Kentucky windage) when choosing where to put my money.

I was lucky. What worked in the past for me may not work in the future.

I wish you all the best of good luck!