Alpha Consumer

Partying (Or Not) Like It's 1997

By Kimberly Palmer

Posted: February 23, 2009

After seeing today's news that stocks fell to their lowest levels since 1997, I felt depressed. How will I ever save for retirement when half of my investments have already evaporated? Then I remembered that I recently rebalanced my 401(k) and felt mildly relieved. Instead of being 100 percent in stocks, an extremely aggressive stance, I put around one-quarter in safer investments, including bonds. And finally, I've decided to forget about the whole thing, go home, make dinner, and watch 24 while avoiding any further discussion of my retirement portfolio.

What about you -- do you have any especially handy denial techniques that you plan to implement tonight?

In it for the long haul

It sounds trite, but it's true: For those of us with decades to go before retiremeent, the drop in stock prices isn't such a big deal. What stocks sell for today has little bearing on what stocks will sell for in 30-40 years when I'll need to sell. Was the stock market in 1969 still crippled by the effects of the crash in 1929? I'm no expert, but it seems to me that it was not.

Johanna of MD @ Feb 24, 2009 09:08:53 AM

Are investors scared?

Are investors scared? Is that why they are pulling out of the stock market? Are investors skeptical of the governments solutions being able to fix the problems?

It seems like the market drop is a response to the government solutions and investors are concerned that too many people are abdicating their responsibility for their actions and begging for the government to fix their problem.

http://www.weeklypoint.com/2009/02/23/dow-just-above-7000/

Dan D. of UT @ Feb 23, 2009 20:03:20 PM

WORK A LITTLE HARDER

My boss has installed a placard in the office that states, "Try a little harder to be a little better." Translated to "Work a little harder for the same pay because we plan to lay people off to offset a anticipated budget shortfall due to the economic melt down." What happenned to success being predicated on hard work? Another fairy tale, like Santa Claus. The reality is "What you wanna do is boom boom" but due to the actions of others beyond our control, what we get is a loud hissing noise as the air rapidly evacuates from the national economic bubble. I say, pour me some bubblies - it always seem to make things better again (until I'm sober).

Tony Lee of CA @ Feb 23, 2009 19:33:10 PM

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Alpha Consumer

Alpha Consumer

Kimberly Palmer, senior editor for U.S. News & World Report, writes about how to save money, avoid scams, manage debt, and be a savvy shopper. Send your personal finance questions to her for expert money advice.


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