I always enjoy these posts. Reminds me of some of my younger day friends that went to the track and always bragged about their winnings and never heard about the losses. Anyway, congrats Gator.
I follow investments quite closely. Cash has returned near zero for the last several years. short term CDs around 2.5% .. below 2% currently. "high Yield" bonds and ETFs a little over 4.. which of course isnt cash.
Maybe you had a premonition and sold ALL of your stock holdings right at the top last summer, and early December. and then went 100% into stocks .. If so, good for you.
Regarding taxes, unless you are thinking of getting buried with your electronic stock certificates, you have to pay the piper if you want to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Pretty silly to delay that spending because you don;t want to pay your uncle. For all of us of a certain age, I think we acknowledge that in the long run we're all going to be on the other side of the green grass. So the days of delayed gratification are over. It's time to enter the distribution phase of life, and exit the many days of delayed gratification that many of us have practiced.
Which leads to a repeat of some of my prior posts. And a review of two acronyms: SWAN and FOMO. Do you have a need of Sleeping Well at Night (SWAN) ? Or do you have a constant Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) ? If you have all of your money hid under your mattress, it might help you to sleep well, because you;ll never worry about those headlines on the DOW going down 600 points in a day. Of course, you will not be able to participate in a brag-fest when people talk about their 20 per cent gain on some IPO (initial public offering) or a great year in the market. Or, if you suffer from FOMO, your money won;t be under that mattress, will it ?
When you;re balanced, you will never hit the "market" returns.. you will have lower highs, and higher lows. Cash and cash equivalents, fixed income (dividend stocks, preferred stocks, balanced funds), growth stocks.. all balanced to meet your retirement income and living requirements and expectations. I;ve met some day traders in the Villages investment clubs.. More power to them.
I happen to know people that cashed out their pensions and lost the entirety through FOMO.. they ended up going back to work and significantly reduced their standard of living. You don;t hear about them .. because you only hear about how much people have won at the track or casinos.
Isn;t SWAN a wonderful thing ??
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