It's amazing how many people report how they perfectly timed the market after the fact.. :1rotfl:

The stock market is the stock market...it goes up and it goes down. If you can time it...you were just lucky once or twice

IMHO if you are still depending upon the stock market at this point in your life to get by...just maybe you didn't make all the right financial moves or plan all that well

if that is the case, I hope that you make it though whatever is going to happen okay...I wish no one unhappiness or financial struggles

I'm thinking that they teach investing for your retirement in high school as a required course...or at least the power of money and time

Wonder how many people here know what the rule of 72 is?

I like when so called investment advisers invite people for a free dinner and show them how they call all of the downturns with their super duper computer program.

Than they show you a chart of how the market does not do as well as it really does over time so you are better off with an annuity paying a guaranteed 3-4%. Of course the commission allows them to live rather nicely.

Yep, probably the same ones that go to Vegas and say the broke even:coolsmiley:

My brother in law used to tell us what a great gambler he was. Always telling us he won a few thousand dollars but funny thing never did say when he lost.

funny how they never do talk about the losses...until they lose their home

Oops. Is resurrecting this thread the day before the markets are having a serious correction similar to the golf announcer's curse, or does it show that this site actually has an impact on the stock markets? The Street and investment professionals want to know. lol

Yup. Such a sad story.

That was the average life expectancy in 1974.

nope not even close, will give a hint and it is related to investments.

The "Rule of 72" doesn't really have anything to do with this thread subject, given that it is just a simple way to determine how long an investment will take to double, given an "estimated" fixed annual rate of interest. The key being that it relies on a variable, the expected ROR, to derive the number of years for that doubling and as can be seen by the gyrations of all of the markets recently - no one really knows what that variable will actually be.

That was sarcasm Sheldon, sarcasm. :ohdear:

Not just interest is taken into account.

If the stock market on average goes up say 8% a year for the past 50 years and lets say you want to have a million dollars in investments by the time you retire in 30 years it gives you an idea of how much you need to put into investments each year.

Of course in the short run the results will vary greatly.

It is a very handy tool.

The number of posts you strive to make in a day? :1rotfl: