one other thing. much of the market downturn is just based on fear. whether it's valid or not , who knows. but the folks that sell at the first signs of trouble are only causing more trouble in the market. hang on and ride it out. look at those people selling as our opportunities for making some real gaines (by buying now)when it does come back.

 

I agree fully. It's a tough time to watch your money fluctuate this much right now (although granted, all the fluctuation is going down). Overall, however, the key is to slowly reduce your risk when you get closer to retirement so that you have very little risk while you start making solid retirement plans. I've heard a few formulas, but the one that makes the most sense to me is subtract your age from 125, and the final result is the amount of stocks (in a percent) you should have in your portfolio. Obviously this is a generic formula, and it has many variables for age of retirement, overall goals, etc etc, but as a baseline, it's not too bad.
Problem is, if you pull out now, you do exactly what screws folks in the market. Buy hi, sell low. Now (and probably the next 3-6 months) are going to be great times to pick up some premium stocks at some discount prices. The market going south is certainly going to kill off some of the smaller and/or hurting companies, so do your research and stick with companies large enough to ride out a bit of a recession, and your efforts will pay off, eventually.
If you are worried about it though, reinvest some of your money into short-term bond funds and CD's for the time being, and wait for the market to stabilize, then rebuy at, or near, where you were comfortable with your stocks before. Disadvantage to this... you'll probably lose some money (in the long run), plus side, your money, in the meantime will (probably) be safer. Problem is, since no one has a time machine (except michal j fox), there's no telling when or where this 'recession' will end.

 

Well ... I haven't done anything yet and I was already planning on making my monthlydeposits either this week or next ( I send it in at the beginning of each month ). I'm just venting / panicking as I'm sure many others are as well. My primary goal is to retire as early as possible so that I can see the country for more than just 2 weeks a year. I'm hopeing to be able to do just that in about 10 years.

Look out Steve, here I come !!

 

and the china argument isn't entirely true either. All the world's large markets are down, and some are down signifigantly less than the US's, including china. they are (currently) down around 9 percent, which is almost double what the US market is down. When it hits a skid, it's going to be on which country can rally it's market the fastest, will pay the largest dividends. Look for BIG gains on the heels of this if the US rallys first.

 

I'm with ya on that Steve... Yes the market is down, but it has a history of corrections. One must be there for the long haul, looking at 10 plus years down the road.

Here is a positive way to look at it............what would you say if you wanted to buy something, and found out for a limited time that you can get it at a price dated back to Nov. 2006?
Well that's where the dow average is at today. At some point the market will become a buyers market. I'm in............

Oh, and sorry for not responding to earlier post questions, been wrapping up the hunting season!

 

i agree whit Steve and those who say the same,its time to buy its the third week in a row i put 3K$ in stock and just this morning after the big plunge of yesterday
i put 5K$more,now i dont have much left for that but id be happy if i waited more for the first 9k but heck tomorrow will prolly even better so i still got 4.5K$ left to do this
if they came back to at least half the value they lost ill be making some real good money out of it

But of course this is for quick moneyi cant rely on that for the future like mayfair does,if i was in ur situation maybe id be nervous but anyway all is to sell for now not much buyers anyway

 

Yes you can always buy overseas stock too. I have about 25% of my portfolio overseas.

Diversify and buy low, sell high.

 

i just take look at the market and since this morning the fall seem to have stopped for now,heck what i bough this morning is even up by 4%
in the next weeks im targeting gold, this will go even higher and gold cannot file for bankrupty

 

Man I gotta learn how to weld ...

 

agreed. precious metals/minerals will never be worth $0. My additional investments are up 4 percent as well (we must invest about the same stuff woli!!)