Activity Feed › Discussion Forums › Business, Finance & Legal › Investments, IRA’s, 401’s etc.
Investments, IRA’s, 401’s etc.
Posted by Unknown Member on February 24, 2020 at 2:22 amHave any of y’all with any type investment given thought to the significant impact the Covid-19 virus is likely to, or could have on world markets? If so I would like your opinion. Some people I know with weighty portfolios have already liquidated everything even though it has tremendous tax consequences attached.
Sell or sit tight? Of course money is no good to you when you are dead. ????
mathteacher replied 4 years ago 26 Members · 67 Replies- 67 Replies
I think both of your sig line quotes answer your question, albeit in different ways from different perspectives…
sit tight
If the health of any of your investments hinge on rapid long distance transport, maybe rethink those.
Shipping has significantly slowed, especially products coming from China… but that stuff happens via embargos and tradewars… I don’t trade in BananasSit tight. It’s a variety of the flu and not much more. It is fatal in ~2% of cases, and I suspect most of those are elderly and infants. Tragic and sad, to be sure. But not an economic crisis. In a few weeks there will be a vaccine and the whole thing will be a fading memory.
My crystal ball is no better than yours. I’ve been amazed at the bad news the market has absorbed lately with hardly more than a blink. The Chinese economy will be down and a lot of production for US companies will be delayed, but our stock market hasn’t seen much reaction. Apple dropped some, but a lot of others with overseas production haven’t. If the virus starts spreading in the US, I would look for a significant economic impact and a drop in the market.
I’ve left my mutual funds to ride the waves, but thinned my stock-picking account severely, starting in 2019 when it sort of looked like a flat-top market peak. I just expected something to make it wiggle. Part of the incentive was expecting to take Minimum Required Distributions this year and wanting to get the taxes paid on some capital gains before my income went up from the RMDs. Then in late December they changed the rules and I have another year before RMDs.
.- Posted by: @mark-mayer
Sit tight. It’s a variety of the flu and not much more. It is fatal in ~2% of cases, and I suspect most of those are elderly and infants.
True. The difference is the mortality rate is actually lower than most kinds of flu, but it is much more contagious due to a long incubation where people can pass it on before showing symptoms.
. Pffff- I just bought another rental property. May not make me a zillion dollars, but for the 30 in cash I put in it??ll pay for itself in 10 years and probably be worth 250 then. Worst case crash and it??s still paid for and worth well more than what I??ve got in it.
I??ve got relative squat in liquidity outside of real estate. But I??ve bought 4 houses in the last 3 years and am sitting on about 100k in equity. Where they are is projected to grow by 400% in the next 20 years… I??ll take my chances.
Let it drop a little more and then buy!
Monday pre-market looks like people are starting to worry, with indexes down ~3%. Travel- related and chip tech stocks are leading the drop.
.“I’ve left my mutual funds to ride the waves”
I have too in the past 3 major downturns. The problem I have with that is (hypothetically) say you have $1M and it loses 25% leaving $750K in the fund. That’s not good by any means but it is better than losing everything.
While this is not as bad as losing everything it still takes around 5 years for the investment to regain its original value. When you are on the “other side of the hill” 5 years is too long. It seems as if everytime you start to gain ground something pops up to ruin it and it’s back to square one. ????
No doubt you can’t lose in real estate. I went the landlord route once and that was enough for me. Hired a management company to deal with the leases, taxes, and especially the renters.
“Sell or sit tight?”
Wrong website for a question like this! Most surveyors I know never get to retire because they are such poor money managers. You should ask an investment advisor a question like this… not surveyors.
@mark-mayer
Also – it’s already too late to sell. If there was going to be a massive drop due to this thing it would have already happened. What – do you think that the big money just heard about this?
I will give you the advice given to me years ago by my dad. You have only lost money on paper when the market is down, if you sell then you lock in that loss. If anything now is a good time to start looking at buying.
@flga
ha- have already been through one nice adventure with a tenant. let’s just say this- even though he wasn’t caught with anything, the SWAT team was in love with him enough to knock down the front wall of the house. learned a big ol’ lesson there- namely, the cops can go round knocking down houses with impunity.
but was a good excuse to do the repairs the house needed.
- Posted by: @hollandbriscoe
I will give you the advice given to me years ago by my dad. You have only lost money on paper when the market is down, if you sell then you lock in that loss. If anything now is a good time to start looking at buying.
I will give you the advice given to me during my limited time at Morgan Stanley:
“The individual investor is what we call ‘the dumb money’; they’re always buying and selling in an attempt to emulate the returns of the financial industry without giving any thought to the fact that when they sell and buy it’s the successful investment banks and hedge funds that are always on the other end of the transaction”
“You should ask an investment advisor a question like this… not surveyors.”
I have this morning. Made some adjustments and everything is fine, I hope.
BTW All Surveyors are not poor. You can be a millionaire if you want to. And that goes for any profession.
Back in the old days a friend of mine who was a mechanic was saving for a used garbage truck. I thought he was crazy. He purchased the truck and started a route in some rural areas. About 12 trucks and 8 years later Waste Management bought him out for a very handsome amount. ????
I have such a small amount to lose I just leave it in all the time. In fact, when I’ve had access to a plain old HSA I maxed that out before anything else (401K, etc) because at least that money I have a chance of spending before something comes along and kills me.
I lost about 25% of some investments back in 2008 and 2009. At the time this amounted to about a $50K hickey. Against a lot of advice I left it where it was.
It took about 5 years but the numbers eventually climbed back. In the last 7 years I’ve not only “gotten back” all that I “lost” plus interest, I’m getting a really good ROI on that money. Had I jumped ship with the jitters I wouldn’t be anywhere near where I am today.
All my money is tied up in cash.
- Posted by: @dave-lindell
All my money is tied up in cash.
That means you have locked in a loss of maybe a couple % a year (currently) in buying power to real inflation (not the rigged CPI), foregoing any gain and not risking a larger loss. Not a bad current strategy if you can afford it.
.
Log in to reply.