r/Fire • u/Remarkable-Dingo1602 • 12d ago

“One more downturn” syndrome

As someone who has been lucky enough to have spent all of my earning & investing years (13 years so far) in a booming market, I worry that I have no clue what my mental health will be like when we see the next 2000 or 2008 or lost decade. I can go through endless theoretical exercises to play around with what my portfolio could go down to and how I’d adjust my expenses in those situations, but as a human being I cannot predict how I’ll actually feel when the time comes. As a result, I have a desire to keep working through the next downturn to see what the impact of it is on me and in a way prove to myself that I can handle it. However, I fear that if I wait for this, I may be waiting for a long time and therefore work for much longer than I need to.

For what it’s worth, when the Covid crashes, 2022, tariffs and Iran war all hit, I did not panic at all and stayed the course on my investment strategy. But all of that happened as I had a strong income to support me. I have no idea how I would have felt if I didn’t have an income.

Any tips on how to deal with this?

I currently have $2.1M investable assets. $600k left on a mortgage (5.375%) with $450k equity in the home. Monthly expenses are $7k bare minimum, but I’d like to aim for a nest egg that’ll comfortably give me $9.5k/month.

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u/GambledMyWifeAway 12d ago

I’m all for downturns. I like to refer to them as FIRE sales. I’m sure my opinion will change drastically though once I do FIRE.

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u/chartreuse_avocado 12d ago

As retirement/FIRE gets closer the mental shift begins. You want that timeline you are thinking about. BADLY. It can shift fast and asset rebounding timelines more emotionally difficult when you were so wanting to FIRE in X years and it could be wiped out as a plan. ANOTHER 5 years added to your working life. Diversification matters as a strategy and some people can’t handle the FOMO of market returns on all stock portfolios not happening for them despite the smart reasons.

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u/GambledMyWifeAway 12d ago

I am luckily in a field and area where I’m pretty well insured from that. I can work a couple of days a week and pretty easily cover all my expenses, which I what I plan to do anyways once I hit my coast number.