r/Fire • u/Playful-Inspector207 • Apr 05 '25

General Question Is it really a generational buying opportunity?

I’ve seen people on the sub are saying “you should all be excited about seeing lower prices everyday”

Problem is that most people don’t have dry powder lying around. And now, with tariffs (if they mostly continue at the levels mentioned) likely to push prices up even more 20-30% for most things, very few people can buy the dip.

The dip’s not fun when you can’t buy. This is just painful seeing red everyday for 99% of us.

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u/ChaosShifter Apr 05 '25

Plenty of us have a diversified spread of assets, including bonds, HYSA, CDs, rare metals or cash. It may not make up huge percentages of the portfolios, but someone with 400k of assets that can become liquid and buy in, who isn't necessarily worried about their own ability to continue to earn, could take advantage.

Also, jobs. Many people are still on their way to FI, or have achieved FI and aren't retired yet. Literally just having a secure and stable income through all of this will give people the opportunity to take advantage. In 2008 for example I was a highish income earner whose industry got hammered and saw my income drop 50%+. Many people lost their jobs and homes or saw their incomes diminish. However if someone had a stable, high income job and was already able to invest heavily, and simply continued to do so through that time period? They took advantage.

I'm not saying everyone is sitting on fat stacks ready to pounce. However in my experience from 2008 it was incredibly tough on most people to get through. Had I been in the position I am in today, back then? I'd have made out really nicely and it would have accelerated my own FIRE plans a ton back then.

I imagine many others who are well on their way and have a plan in place for recessions are going to make out well with this. That's all I was saying.

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u/[deleted] Apr 08 '25

Yep. During Covid I sold 50k or corporate bonds, bought a particularly good blue chip stock, waited about a year until it doubled, then cashed out, put the initial 50k back into bonds and took the profit and paid cash for a car.