60+ year old thread.

I've been waiting for this to happen. Wait for the bottom and buy in... and glad I'm not heavily invested now. If I was invested now I'd be selling before the big slide.

 

I'm too freakin' busy these days to follow the market too closely so I'm just buying, I buy on the ups, I buy on the downs, and I buy on the flats. Year to date I've been crushed, however, I've also picked up a lot of stuff at lower prices than I otherwise would have, and when the market bounces back I should be in pretty good shape..., I hope.

 

I guess we all know that the market will bounce back Dale, the 64-million-dollar question is now how low can it go, with what's all that's going on it could still have a big slide as Travlr mentioned, I've also been waiting for this to happen. Guess, like you, it's time to start dabbling and that it doesn't go into a freefall.

 

We are WAY overdue for a significant market correction... and now face a probable recession. The market is being manipulated artificially now that computer algorithms are being used to determine best times to sell/buy rather than how to value stocks, so it will be interesting to see if there is a deep slide or a smaller dip. But in the past a deep slide would have been the natural evolution of the factors involved.
One of the upsides in a true crash is opportunity. But of course a lot of people will be hurt badly because they won't take advantage of the opportunities and will just ride it out.

 

I'm the last one to supply advice.

I sold my Ford Stock and kept my GM. Well, my thought was, "GM assets are worth at least $20 a share, so keep it" I was between a rock and a hard place in 2008. A ton of medical debt rolled the dice and sold FORD. Fed's got most of that money, GM was "settled" with a massive payout to the unions, and I got less than pennies on a share. Start over.

I did OK with "not touch it" stuff, but it had significant gains over the years.

These days I'm more trying to figure out that balance between when I pull the plug and how many years I have left. The goal was to have the house paid for with minimal expenses. I am still enjoying my job/career but want to enjoy some years. The irony is time marches on, my peers have left, and I've become that old guy with Legacy Knowledge. So they are happy to have me around, and I still solve things.

My sweet Golden Retriever is home after her knee surgery; TPLO to repair the ligament. $4600 but in the scheme of things, well worth it.

Honda is still in the shop. SNAFU was the wrong transmission was delivered to the dealership, so I'll have the HRV for another week.

 

Morning all!
As far as the stock market goes I’m riding it out, but my investments are managed. Fully retiring first of August. Along with SS and a small monthly retirement from a previous job, I have enough cash to last me mid 2025 before I start to draw on stocks, treasuries etc so hopefully market recovers well before then.

This morning I’m doing setup/testing of a basic Ring security system for the home. It has wifi and cellular backup and I plan to buy Ring retrofit kit that allows me to
use the hardwired sensors from my existing system, that’s why I chose the Ring. Existing system is a 15 year old Brinks, now ADT monitoring at around $43/month and requires a landline which costs is another $98/Month.
With the Ring system I can get Ring Pro professional monitoring for $20 a month and ditch the landline since it has cellular backup. You get alerts on your phone so you don’t have to pay for the professional monitoring but we want that as well. Saving some money in retirement and getting a modern system. I will add a Ring video doorbell
and perhaps eventually add an outdoor motion sensor/camera with led lights for the back door.

 

Yeah, it's not supposed to be sideways, but I'm a 1 man show. Deep into the fun part of moving everything to move everything now

 

Don't plug it in for a couple days.

 

The financial markets are cyclical, they go up and they go down. They have always done that and always will. Many or most things in life are cyclical. When the markets are at multi year highs many investors forget the lows, the bear markets, the recessions, crashes and the risks of the markets. They keep watching their investments increasing and they are blinded to the risks and market history.
After a bear market the market usually recovers within 2 or so years but not always. It took 6 to 8 years for recovery after the 2008 market dump. For people our age that long a market recovery can literally be a life time.
When I was working (prior to retirement) I had multiple financial securities licenses. I did not sell securities but needed them for various reasons for my job. Learned a lot about securities and investing. But I found my knowledge was nothing compared to a good financial adviser. I had done my own investing for years but when I started using a good financial adviser I found I was making lots of mistakes, and was ignorant in many areas. I now would never invest in securities without a top notch financial adviser. The market today is quite complex and without expert advice most of us don’t really know what we are doing, we may think we do but we don’t. You may have to go through many financial advisors to find a good one that you trust and have rapport with. My point is if you are investing significant sums in securities you really need an expert helping and advising.
My wife and I are conservative investors and our investment portfolio has done quite well over many many years. I talked to my investment advisor 8 days ago and even though the markets have been dropping for some time our portfolio was only down 1.5%. Without our adviser our investments would likely been down 20 or more percent. We are fortunate we have 7 sources of income and that does not include our investment portfolio. We don’t take money from our portfolio except for a big ticket item like a piece of property or to pay cash for a new vehicle or boat etc.
We are currently in a recession or at least on the precipice of recession. There is nothing positive about the current economy. Looks like tough and tougher economic times for the foreseeable future for all of us. So be careful and cautious my porch friends

 

6 weeks

 

Made me look it up - I was going to anyway....

Transport the freezer in an upright position. If it has been necessary to transport the freezer on its side, it should be stood upright for an equal amount of time as it was on its side before plugging it in. If on its side for more than a day, leave standing for 24 hours before running.

It was a 20 minute ride, and at the speed I'm moving in this 100+* heat, it will have about 10 times that standing upright!

 

Wow! Glad I caught you in time before you plugged it in!

 

That was a good warning you gave Alan. Haven’t moved any fridges lately but had no idea. Learn something new every day!

 

At my speed, pretty safe bet that I'd have looked it up and waited. Just now got it inside! Have to put it on its side to remove shipping bolts and feet too wide for door. I'm taking a break, and letting the room cool off

 

All back to "normal", whatever that is!
Kelvinator/White, 25 years old. I'll probably save a buck or two on electric. Will it pay itself back?
Pretty sure I bought it "rebuilt" in the 00's.




But, it will cost less to run, and that is still a win.

 

Good morning fellow Porchatonians!! Today will be a gorgeous pool day - cold snap coming tomorrow that will drop us into the 60s for highs this weekend and 70s through most of next week until we finally get back into the 80s.

Had 6 trees taken down yesterday - 3 were old/dead (2 ales and 1 willow) and 3 that were old/leaning and in the same area as the one that took out Lynn's greenhouse last year. The apples and willow were dropping branches and the oe pine lost a big bough in April. Now I can finally cut around them again.

I'll do some yard work this morning and hit the pool this afternoon - and have my 9-hole golf league this evening. Nice day.

The color of my son's new car that he'll be picking up this morning is appropriate - I am jealous! He's trading in his 10 year old Scion FR-S for a 2022 GR Supra 3.0 Premium. Stock picture included until he sends me pics of his when he gets it today.

 

Morning

 

I like those new Supras! About the only negative I've heard is something about not being able to drive with both windows open because of buffeting. Something like that. I'd gripe about the number of pedals on the floor too, but that just makes me look old. Save the Manuals!

I visited my financial guy on Tuesday, he told me that the worst was over and that I should be looking for signs of recovery in the markets. Then yesterday happened. I checked and he hasn't committed hari kiri or anything, so I guess he's not too worried.

I am pretty sure I want to take SS this year instead of waiting. One big reason is the rumored increase next year. I'm pretty sure the percentage increase for waiting is fixed at 8%/year, and if there is going to be a big COLA adjustment I think I have to be receiving SS in order to take advantage of it. Still digging around for information on that specific question.

 

I’m mostly invested in Mutual funds . 83% . I talked to my guy yesterday and he said they are being moved around on a daily basis right now .

 

Well that did not take long to happen. I did not know about the waiting to plug in. I have never brought a new freezer. When I moved in the old owners left the freezer so I used it. About 10 years ago the neighbors up the street gave me their freezer because they did not need it anymore. I gave my old freezer to the neighbor across the street for his sister to use. She runs two food trucks and has a food service stall in a local market in DC. I am looking to buy, CFO permitting, a small refrigerator so I can start to age beef at home. I am still in the investigative phase for this project. No need to go to the CFO without costs and benefits for the project.

Yesterday was interesting. Training for an Election Chief Judge is intense. So much that I did not know goes on inside a polling location. Just made me appreciate the voting process even more.

The visit with the doc was a little harder to take. Not only is my Hiatal Hernia large I also have a large calcium deposit in my Gall Bladder. I have a referral to a minimal invasive surgeon for both items. I talked with my SIL, a retired nurse, about both problems and she explained to us, me and the wife, what the report means. I will make an initial visit with the surgeon today and see what he is recommending. Both items are not life threatening unless the gall stone moves, then that would be painful.

Off to the garden center to buy some Vincas today to plant under the Swamp White Oak tree out front.