Financial News

I agree that Yahoo Finance used to be a worthwhile free tool. Now they are crap. I use etrade for most of my stock-related news.

1988RedT2 wrote: I agree that Yahoo Finance used to be a worthwhile free tool. Now they are crap. I use etrade for most of my stock-related news.

Agreed, they've gone from being a "worthwhile tool" to just being a "tool"

It was fun floundering their message board though…remember the big news thing a few months ago about changing who is on the twenty dollar bill.

I posted something about how a friend of mine lives in South Dakota and she mentioned to me that a crew of surveyors had been taking measurements of Mount Rushmore to plant the seed that one of the presidents may be replaced.

Oh…My…Gaud…the E36 M3 storm that set off was absolutely hilarious!

In reply to mtn:

If your friend held onto their stocks through 2008 and didn't sell at all then they did very well. Sounds like they sold thus ensuring the loss. It's only a loss once it's realized through stock sale.

Reven', sounds like we have very similar mind sets about saving, investing, and living below means. I saved 70% of my take home last year. That was an exceptional year but it was still neat to see.

dculberson wrote: In reply to mtn: If your friend held onto their stocks through 2008 and didn't sell at all then they did very well. Sounds like they sold thus ensuring the loss. It's only a loss once it's realized through stock sale

Not if you're a year from retirement. You might draw down the account far enough that it won't replace itself if you have a Japan like situation. What if the recession took 10 or 20 years to recover? Obviously you can turn that around and say what if it never happened, but once you reach your retirement number, you probably shouldn't be too heavy in stocks. Too heavy could be 90%, it could be 95%, it could be 40%.

In general I'm more along the lines of your thinking--depending on how you look at a mortgage payment and student loan payments, we save between 20% and 60% of our income.

In reply to mtn:

More experienced people than me have run research into the retirement and drawdown question. They've found that at any point in history a 4% withdrawal rate from an equities only portfolio is safe. That includes the Great Depression and 2008.

In fact selling in 2008 was horrible decision even one year from retirement. Unless you didn't need returns. Plenty of people sat out a ~23% gain in one year after deciding to wait for a recovery. They missed 2010 and 2011. Some people are still waiting.

Buy and hold is the only strategy that reliably works.

dculberson wrote: In reply to mtn: More experienced people than me have run research into the retirement and drawdown question. They've found that at any point in history a 4% withdrawal rate from an equities only portfolio is safe. That includes the Great Depression and 2008. In fact selling in 2008 was horrible decision even one year from retirement. Unless you didn't need returns. Plenty of people sat out a ~23% gain in one year after deciding to wait for a recovery. They missed 2010 and 2011. Some people are still waiting. Buy and hold is the only strategy that reliably works.

That's been my way of investing. I just "buy & hold". I lost nearly 50% in the 2008-2009 period "ON PAPER". Until you sell you haven't lost anything! I didn't need the money so I just waited and gained it all back and then some. Yes it took a few years but by early 2011 I was nearly back even so it wasn't like I had to wait that long, and I still got to retire early (Age 56). I just needed to keep my spending at a lower level then I had planned in the early years.

dculberson wrote: In reply to mtn: If your friend held onto their stocks through 2008 and didn't sell at all then they did very well. Sounds like they sold thus ensuring the loss. It's only a loss once it's realized through stock sale. Reven', sounds like we have very similar mind sets about saving, investing, and living below means. I saved 70% of my take home last year. That was an exceptional year but it was still neat to see.

Holy crap. You saved 70% of take home pay? That is impressive sir. I've been psyched to get the 84FSP household to 35%....

In reply to 84FSP:

Just in 2016 - I don't expect that to hold up but yeah! I'm excited about that!

Love this thread. Love watching investments grow and liabilities shrink.

I'm also a former Yahoo finance reader. It's terrible now. Motley Fool is some of the same--way too much OHMYGODWEJUSTDISCOVEREDTHEBESTOPPORTUNITYEVER!!! crap is written by their staff to get useful info. Their boards used to be great, haven't spent any time there in years though.

PeterAK wrote: Love this thread. Love watching investments grow and liabilities shrink. I'm also a former Yahoo finance reader. It's terrible now. Motley Fool is some of the same--way too much OHMYGODWEJUSTDISCOVEREDTHEBESTOPPORTUNITYEVER!!! crap is written by their staff to get useful info. Their boards used to be great, haven't spent any time there in years though.

I liked them in the way back, now if the MF guys were right 50% of the time they would be billionaires and they'd stop spamming my inbox with the next Apple/Walmart/Amazon