[Boomer]

The last time the market truly tanked like this, 5% CDs were still around in bricks and mortar banks for backup.

Not only were they there, but if you owned a CD in an IRA but had reached 59 and 1/2, you could get money out, early, penalty free, under certain circumstances — like with some community banks.

But (sigh) it looks like those days are gone forever. The money is there for you, but that’s pretty much it. Banks are holding all the cards while depositors get zero, zilch, nada.

Banks doing nothing for depositors — not even giving so much as a toaster (said Boomer showing her age) — has been another driver of that old bull market we have seen running like crazy since about 2008 — with a stumble here and there — but nothing of any real consequence until now. (YIKES!)

As a boring, buy and hold, dividend investor, I shopped too soon, a couple+ months ago, and added a few companies that have been getting pounded along with the overall market, but I chose companies with (I hope) sustainable dividends, paid and increased annually for decades. Had I waited, the yields would have been even better.

Oh well, I’ll hold……and planning to maybe shop again soon.

I think this is going to be a looooong one, but what do I know…. zero, zilch, nada.

Covid and the War in Ukraine have been Black Swan events, unlike the 2007 mess which even I, bumpkin though I may be, could see coming.

I have long thought — that for this entire century — the Fed rate has been stupidly low — and now we are paying the piper. Too much. Too late.

If the dependable, boring, long time dividend payers go belly up, we are all #%*@&$ anyway, so what the heck — I am thinking about taking another chance soon by shopping again. But I have never, and will not, bet the farm — just the butter and egg money.

Meanwhile. it’s times like these, when I am especially glad that there is no advisor between me and the money. I am a seasoned woman, perfectly capable of taking responsibility for my own mistakes. Advisors I have interviewed still get 1% of the total portfolio value — whether the investor is winning or losing. That just does not work for me.

My two rules:

Know what you buy.

Know yourself.

(Btw, I don’t think the fat lady is even warming up to sing yet, but I will just cling to my decades old “Dividends pay you to wait” philosophy of investing……….I think I like that little thrill of the possibility of share price increases in the future, too. Well…. I don’t just “think” that, I know that’s just how I am.)

Boomer