Investing 102

[GregWeld]

Originally Posted by 68Cuda

Greg. The last 5 years have been nice... but I have to admit, since about the beginning of the year I have been feeling a bit nervous, kind of bearish so to speak. I am having trouble comprehending the market... last time I had this feeling was late 1999. I'll have to admit, this does not feel bad in quite the same way, just seems a bit high.

Is this just a natural reaction to the market hitting new highs?

What say you?

Not being mean here -- please understand the response.


Go to any company that has a chart longer than say 20 years.... put the chart in ALL mode. If the chart goes back to about 1950 --- how many "NEW HIGHS" were put in as we climbed from a DOW that was about 300 back then.

The DOW was 130.57 on January 1st 1941....

The reason that I have urged people to buy DIVIDEND paying stocks is because we can not rely on day to day price increases to fund our retirement savings or our retirement income. That takes cash flow. If the stocks you own are paying dividends and they are being re-invested - then if the market takes a dip - you will be buying MORE shares - which is a good thing! The whole point of this long winded thread is to get people to STOP trying to second guess the "market" and just buy the best of the best - that pay dividends - and HOLD ON TO THEM for the long term. Be a Warren Buffett.... He buys - he never sells... he's one of the richest men on the planet.

If you sell every time you "think" you know what's going to happen -- you're never going to get anywhere with your investments. The market will - mark my words WILL - go down.... it will also go back up - or maybe just tread water for a long period of time (as in YEARS - not days). You will never know in advance when any of that is going to happen.

[68Cuda]

Originally Posted by GregWeld

The reason that I have urged people to buy DIVIDEND paying stocks is because we can not rely on day to day price increases to fund our retirement savings or our retirement income. That takes cash flow. If the stocks you own are paying dividends and they are being re-invested - then if the market takes a dip - you will be buying MORE shares - which is a good thing! The whole point of this long winded thread is to get people to STOP trying to second guess the "market" and just buy the best of the best - that pay dividends - and HOLD ON TO THEM for the long term.

Greg - just occasionally have doubts - I know, hold the course. I don't do much of anything in this arena on a whim. I'll obsess about it for a while before I do anything. In the 90% of my 401k that I can port to a self directed brokerage account I am about 10% MO(since 2012), 6% CAG (since 2010), 8% JNJ (since 2011), 6% KMB (since 2011), 10% MRK (since 2011), 8% NUE (since 2011), 12% VZ (since 2012), and 8% WM (since 2012). I moved about 10% to BP and 10% to GE this past December... my only real recent moves. So, as you see, not a lot of jumping in/out or churning and all of them are big names that pay decent dividends. Of course the account is set up to reinvest on all of them. Of the 10% that I cannot do the brokerage on, about 1/2 is in company stock and the rest is in "growth" funds. I have another little IRA account we set up that has mostly KMB and PG that I have held since 2011. And then there is my wife's 401 which is stuck in some generic Schwab funds, but there are not very many choices for us in that one.

[GregWeld]

Originally Posted by 68Cuda

Greg - just occasionally have doubts - I know, hold the course. I don't do much of anything in this arena on a whim. I'll obsess about it for a while before I do anything. In the 90% of my 401k that I can port to a self directed brokerage account I am about 10% MO(since 2012), 6% CAG (since 2010), 8% JNJ (since 2011), 6% KMB (since 2011), 10% MRK (since 2011), 8% NUE (since 2011), 12% VZ (since 2012), and 8% WM (since 2012). I moved about 10% to BP and 10% to GE this past December... my only real recent moves. So, as you see, not a lot of jumping in/out or churning and all of them are big names that pay decent dividends. Of course the account is set up to reinvest on all of them. Of the 10% that I cannot do the brokerage on, about 1/2 is in company stock and the rest is in "growth" funds. I have another little IRA account we set up that has mostly KMB and PG that I have held since 2011. And then there is my wife's 401 which is stuck in some generic Schwab funds, but there are not very many choices for us in that one.

You have good names --- and kudos to you for understanding investing! Now -- quit fretting about all the "news" and talking heads... they'll only get you churned up in the interest of "news".

[SSLance]

Right now I'm bouncing between feeling like I should be buying more right now and just ignoring things...and letting them roll.

Either way, I'm still sleeping very VERY well.