Thursday, November 20, 2008

Technical barriers, asset allocation, and market panic


Today we're plummeting down towards 7,000 in the Dow, which if you listen to the folks on Bloomberg is an important technical support level in the market. Institutional buyers may come back in. If they can. So they say. In 2000-2001 I didn't have a pot to piss in, so the dot com crash was meaningless to my finances, and actually beneficial since I started buying in at a low. Bri and I saved a fair amount of dough over the past few years, and now, like a bunch of you, we're watching it disappear into the electronic graveyard. Here's how I cope:

- Keep working and looking for new opportunities to increase current income
- Reallocate a bit - we've taken smallish positions in commodities
- Don't panic - a 30-40 year investment time horizon allows us to get clobbered a couple times (and I don't plan to 'retire')
- Don't commit wasteful spending (instead of a $60 dinner, how about a $30 dinner and $30 in the MMA)
- Watch for opportunity - real estate is going to be a major bargain after all this stuff is washed out of the system
- don't call Bri every half hour and say "The market is up! The market is down!"
- Buy some physical gold and silver as a hedge against a complete collapse

- Keep buying in to the market to some extent
- Keep having fun, turn off the news and chill
- If all else fails, break out your Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy

No comments: