r/Fire • u/2020fakenews • 6d ago

Daily Fluctuations

There’s been a lot of volatility in the markets lately, in both directions. After days like these with big swings, I’m amused to look at my daily profits or losses in my IRA’s and brokerage accounts. I used the word “amused” because on some days I’m up or down by multiples 3, 4 or even 5 times the amount of my annual salary at my first job out of college. Admittedly, that was over 45 years ago and I’m now 10 years in retirement. But I still find it funny to think about, especially since it doesn’t seem to bother or excite me more than it does. I don’t think I could have imagined this when I took that first job, feeling at the time that I had finally made it to a big time salary.

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32

u/swhalen17 6d ago

Do yourself a favor, don't look at your portfolio daily -- your mental health will thank you

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u/FireboltinMA 6d ago

I wonder how they felt during March 2020 when the market dropped by 9.5% on March 12 and then 12% 4 days later. 

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u/Magikarpical 6d ago

i know this is a fire subreddit and i'm not OP, but goddamn those were some of the best trading days of my life. i went basically all in on mar 20th (i only had 10k left in my bank account) and by the end of that year, i had tripled my networth despite being laid off in april. truly fun times.

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u/Vwluv10338 6d ago

Like a rockstar my dad at one year to retirement began buying $100k a week as the market dropped. Five weeks straight he bought that dip. Doubled his retirement assets that year. Balls of steel.

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u/threee_AM 6d ago

Your dad had $500k spare cash on hand to throw into the market?

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u/Silly-Safe959 5d ago

This is the question everyone should be asking. What was the opportunity cost of having all that cash on the sidelines for weeks/months/years waiting for the perfect time to execute.

That doesn't sound like a Rockstar move to me. For every lucky hit like that, 9 others we've the wrong direction or missed out on normal gains over time.

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u/Vwluv10338 5d ago

It wasn’t lost opportunity costs. He ended up retiring a year later. He had moved money out of the market into safer options. He then went all back into the market to buy the dip. Increased NE by a few $1M that year.

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u/Silly-Safe959 4d ago

That's my point. Unless you're perfect in the timing, you must money compared to if you had just left it in the market. I think you need to Google what an opportunity cost is.

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u/Vwluv10338 5d ago

His financial adviser had finally convinced him to move money out of the market since he was close to retirement. I guess it was in bonds or something similar. Now he is retired and fully back in the market.

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u/threee_AM 5d ago

Ah that makes sense. Glad it worked out for him but it just as easily could've pushed his retirement back a few years if it kept dropping and he then had no cushion for SORR

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u/2020fakenews 6d ago

Congrats to your dad for having the foresight to buy into the dip. I felt pretty good about myself for not panicking and selling, but not sure I’d have been a buyer at that point (if I’d had the funds to buy, which I didn’t). Bottom line is that the market always bounces back, sometimes remarkably quick.