It's a good topic! I keep thinking about some of the things you've raised...
I'm still relatively young (mid thirties) and I've never gone through the pain of a massive recession, crash or bear market. I was too young during the dotcom era but I was employed when 2008 hit and saw many friends lose their jobs or unable to find one, but I went through it without much harm myself. Maybe because I've never gone through one or maybe because of my age I'm not really afraid of a situation like this coming anytime soon. I keep putting money in the market because I believe time in the market trumps timing the market. I also believe it's a market of stocks and there are still opportunities out there even at this high of a SP500 P/E. (thanks for these learnings DGI Forum).
I keep my security money on the side (covering 9-12 months of expenses) and a Plan B in case the worst happens (includes moving back to my home country where the house is paid for and no debt while I can search for another job). I believe I'm prepared to what life may throw at me (eg. losing my job or a long period of illness) but you never know what can happen... But can you prepare for every eventuality?
I could live a more wealthier style of life but I've decided not to and I prefer to invest the money my colleagues spend in new cars or almost weekly vacations (surf or snowboarding trips). I'm still a fairly big spender and some expenses almost make me dizzy when I think of them (for example, we pay ~$1000 a month for childcare when my son could go to another preschool where the wife works, for free, but my wife doesn't want him in the same school as her... makes me sick to think what I could do with $12k a year at 10%... I track all my expenses and we're averaging ~$7k a month in expenses, I know with some discipline we could easily live under $5k a month (this includes everything we've spent money on this year, from summer vacations to clothing). Example, do I really need Amazon Prime + Netflix + Youtube Red + Cable?
( I know I don't but i keep making up excuses for all of them).
In the meantime, let me praise Merrill Lynch, 100 free trades a month (if you keep a certain balance with them, includes money in BAC as well) is amazing. True it's not the best platform out there, but saving $6 or $7 per trade gives you the ability to buy smaller batches of stocks without having to worry, it's just amazing!
I'm still relatively young (mid thirties) and I've never gone through the pain of a massive recession, crash or bear market. I was too young during the dotcom era but I was employed when 2008 hit and saw many friends lose their jobs or unable to find one, but I went through it without much harm myself. Maybe because I've never gone through one or maybe because of my age I'm not really afraid of a situation like this coming anytime soon. I keep putting money in the market because I believe time in the market trumps timing the market. I also believe it's a market of stocks and there are still opportunities out there even at this high of a SP500 P/E. (thanks for these learnings DGI Forum).
I keep my security money on the side (covering 9-12 months of expenses) and a Plan B in case the worst happens (includes moving back to my home country where the house is paid for and no debt while I can search for another job). I believe I'm prepared to what life may throw at me (eg. losing my job or a long period of illness) but you never know what can happen... But can you prepare for every eventuality?
I could live a more wealthier style of life but I've decided not to and I prefer to invest the money my colleagues spend in new cars or almost weekly vacations (surf or snowboarding trips). I'm still a fairly big spender and some expenses almost make me dizzy when I think of them (for example, we pay ~$1000 a month for childcare when my son could go to another preschool where the wife works, for free, but my wife doesn't want him in the same school as her... makes me sick to think what I could do with $12k a year at 10%... I track all my expenses and we're averaging ~$7k a month in expenses, I know with some discipline we could easily live under $5k a month (this includes everything we've spent money on this year, from summer vacations to clothing). Example, do I really need Amazon Prime + Netflix + Youtube Red + Cable?
( I know I don't but i keep making up excuses for all of them). In the meantime, let me praise Merrill Lynch, 100 free trades a month (if you keep a certain balance with them, includes money in BAC as well) is amazing. True it's not the best platform out there, but saving $6 or $7 per trade gives you the ability to buy smaller batches of stocks without having to worry, it's just amazing!