If you thought the last crash was bad

[Maggot]

Think again. Hopefully most are debt free now. Move your stocks and savings into metals before that shoots up and its low now. Things are going to get bumpy.

[Midwest Spy]

Where are you getting your info?

How much time before the next crash?

[Maggot]

Where are you getting your info?

How much time before the next crash?

Right before mid term elections. Gold and silver and platinum will go up as inflation creeps in. The European market will be hit first as Germany falters, next the Asian market as China exerts pressure on foreign markets because their exports start tanking, they will call in a few cards to save their ass. South America will be effected by the Venezuelan dip as they have a tough time paying debt. All in all oil will become cheap as the bloc bidding gets muddled looking for solid and stable trade.

The U.S. and Russia might be OK as long as there is a good grain year. I think Monsanto is in negotiations with Russia now.

[thekid65]

Hard for me to pull/move anything in my 401K. Kicked ass last year.

[Duchess]

Was this thread inspired due to the market closing yesterday at their biggest loss in several months?

I'm trying to have hope about the economy & not borrow trouble. I'll wait until I see a trend before I get too concerned.

[Donovan]

It occurs to me that when everyone is poor and scraping by, those of us ahead of that curve will have an advantage since we already know how to live without.

[Cynical Ninja]

The economy in the UK is growing for the first time in a while and we have more people in employment than we have had in a very long time. We are actually creating manufacturing jobs which makes a change.

[crash]

I thought the last crash was fucking awesome! The new and improved one is better but I guess. Hang on.. Have I changed? Never mind..

[HairOfTheDog]

Hard for me to pull/move anything in my 401K. Kicked ass last year.

Damn, that is an incredible return. Nice, Kid.

[thekid65]

Yeah, I was tickled to death watching it all year. That was from 1-1-13 to 1-30-13. Our company's 401k is rather limited to what you can choose from. Unfortunately, we can't pick individual stocks, it's all funds. I wish I understood this crap a little better. Basically, I'm in on only 2 funds, one for steady long term, and one that's much more aggressive (larger risk). The aggressive one kicked ass for me all year.

I know I need to be more diversified, but when I look at all of the different funds presented to us to choose from...well, I may as well throw darts at a dart board. I wish we could pick individual stocks, like we could when the company had IRA's, before we switched to a 401k. For some reason, my company has chosen to not let us have the type of plan where we would have the stock option. Not sure why.

[HairOfTheDog]

Even though you don't have a ton of choices, it seems that whoever is making the investment selections for the portfolio did a great job that year, Kid.

It could really dip or go even higher next year, obviously. My dad used to tell me that a good solid plan with a decent level of diversification (offsetting high potential gains with low-yielding but stable returns) should be left alone - over the long run and across market/economic up and down turns - and that it will render high yields when it's finally time to draw on it. He was great at that stuff and always developed "what if" scenario percentages and charts and such (I'm more like you in regards to investments).

I don't know if his philosophy is still one that is advocated by financial planners today, but I went against it a few years ago when I got nervous watching my investments plummet a year and a half into the recession. I hope I didn't do the wrong thing financially, but may well have.

[Maggot]

If you go into your mutual funds you can look at the bottom of their descriptions and see what they invest in. Some will say GE, general mills maybe some insurance stuff, but you can still pick and choose.

[thekid65]

Yeah, HotD...that's what I feel I need more of, diversity. But after last year, I just don't wanna fuck with anything. We (the employee) set up our own portfolios from a choice of about 40 or so funds.

And Maggot, you're correct. We can see what is in the fund investments...still doesn't change the fact that I can't say "I'd like to buy 100 shares of XYZ company" which is what I'd really like to do. I know I could go outside of my 401k and do that, however I'm dumping 9% of my salary into my 401k as it is (not enough, I know), and really havent saved up enough to make a decent stock purchase, nor have I really tried. I'm not the most financially responsible guy when it comes to socking a decent amount of money into savings. Pretty much just have a solid emergency fund, and that's it.

[thekid65]

This is about half of what I get to choose from. I click on the blue links, and it tells me what's in them, performance history, projections, etc, etc. I dunno...feels like a fucking crap shoot with my retirement...makes me a bit nervous.