Thursday, March 5, 2009

number crunching

I have been crunching the numbers since I made the decision to leave our IRAs invested in the market throughout this painful crash. We were 100% stocks, and overweight in foreign stocks. Still are but they are all down. We will need to save at our current rate for four years to make up the losses we've incurred since January 08. That assumes what is invested stays flat for the next four years. It would be nice to save more but I'm not sure that is going to happen.

In good news, I am still pretty healthy and can go dig ditches as needed in order to pay the bills.

I'm going to open up a Roth IRA this year as future tax burden is likely to be higher than present day. I'll probably put everything into agricultural commodity index funds and oil if it stays low.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

i enjoyed this post very much although i miss the "mad marty" days. i feel terrible when i read that this sort of crap is happening to good people like bri and you. i am starting to shit in my pants as should everyone. i know that no one wants to be read this sort of doom and gloom news but it's getting to the point where we all need to realize that down the road "shoveling ditches" may be our only way to put food on the table. even those in energy and infrastructure aren't immune. projects on the table aren't getting funded anymore.

we like you guys so maybe we can go on mr. toad's wild adventure together. sniff. ds.

Anonymous said...

Got a huge laugh out of me when I got to the picture of a pig!

I like the fundamental clarity of your perspective and the pragmatism of your plans for getting through it all. Thanks.