Retirement savings ....Yikes !

[newbury]

The only 1 that gets hurt on a rollercoster are the ones that jump off.

The trick is to jump off when the coaster slows for the stop. I got out of the market about Sept 2009 and never looked back.

 

[J F]

At 70 or 95, it get's a little more scary.

 

[kenmac]

The trick is to jump off when the coaster slows for the stop. I got out of the market about Sept 2009 and never looked back.

Well Nothig is safe.The market (for me )is about as safe as anywhere else I could park my $.I have an advisor that manages my accounts.If I loose he also looses.So far I've been pleased.Probably won't retire until I can't go out in the service truck anymore

 

[kenmac]

How old are you?

55 today

 

[J F]

46 as of this year, I still don't know the "secret" timing, though.

 

[kenmac]

46 as of this year, I still don't know the "secret" timing, though.

If I could time the market, I wouldn't need an advisor to manage my accounts.I don't know of anyone that can time the market. I just stay for the ride.When it was down I just bought more

 

[J F]

You did the smart thing.

 

[dave1949]

One powerful thing the market has going for it is the number of very wealthy people who are invested in it and want it to be profitable. If you are in the market, no matter how much, those people are working politically and from the business side for your benefit.

There will up and downs and the occasional disaster, but there is a pile of money and power pushing in a profitable direction.

 

[BuzzardA91]

Link to one of many handy 401K calculators...
401k Retirement Calculator

I guess I am missing something. Mathematically if you get 5% return compounding over 8 years you only yield under 50% not 100%. It would take over 14 years to double your money at 5%? I am not saying your wrong but I seem to be me missing something in the figuring.

I am referring to the post just before the one I quoted. The chart was too long to repost.

What is it?

 

[KTurner]

I guess I am missing something. Mathematically if you get 5% return compounding over 8 years you only yield under 50% not 100%. It would take over 14 years to double your money at 5%? I am not saying your wrong but I seem to be me missing something in the figuring.

I am referring to the post just before the one I quoted. The chart was too long to repost.

What is it?

Rule of 72. Take 72 and divide it by the number of percentage you expect to earn and that will give you the number of years it will take to double your investment. On a 5% return, divide 72 by 5 and you get 14 and change. For a 7% return, it's 72/7 or just over 10 years. Little bit of algebra to change the formula around and you can figure out what rate of return it would take to double your money in a specific number of years. Divide 72 by the desired number of years and it'll tell you what return you need to accomplish that. If you want to double your money in 7 years, 72 divided by 7 shows you'd need a bit over 10% to do that. Double your money in 3 years? 72/3 shows you'd need a 24% return.

This is a rule of thumb sort of thing and is not precise, but gets you within a few months. It assumes no taxes, no additions, no withdrawals, etc. And it doesn't matter how much money you're talking about - $5 or $5 billion.

And there's something about financial advisors that has always bugged me. If they're so darn smart about investing, why do they have a day job (financial advisor)? If I were as good as these guys claim to be, I'd be doing a bit of investing each day and enjoying early retirement, working in the yard/garden, playing with my son, etc.

Keith