Another "Cool Story, brah"…

My wife and I retired in 2018..

We invested our 401k into an IRA with a traditional fiduciary who had performed well for my family for years… Told him to be conservative…

4% gain was OK… Losses were not..

First year -10% net gain.. 2019 Yippee !!

2nd year - 2020 -2% LOSS (When everyone else was making 20%)… Fired him…

3rd year… 2021…Switched to large firm with family ties… Lost money again..

Son is a money manager at Fisher… Had a long talk with him… He basically fessed up and said…"Nobody Knows Anything.."

Early this year we put our money into an Indexed Annuity… 30% indexed at 3.5% fixed.. 40% tied to market with zero loss floor… 30% betting on S&P to drop in Year 1…

My belief… The glory days are over for a while… Indexed Annuities are the right investment for retirees at this moment…

Mitigate the risk, THEN chase the returns…

I retired in 2018, put 100% in equities. At one point I had doubled my money, still about 70% ahead. I was a Merrill FA for 28 years, the last place I would invest is an annuity. That doesn't mean it wasn't OK for you. Your Fisher guy was right except he left out one ironclad truth…The market has never stayed down.

20 & 21 were fantasy land. Sure, you could have made some sweet bank if you liquidated on 12/31/2021. But almost no one did that, because most retirement accounts are buy and hold. If your retirement acct is above Jan 1 2020 balance, then you're in a fair spot right now. If it's much lower than that, yeah fire them all...

20 and 21 were fantasy land valuations, and a lot of people suspected as much. But sitting in the sidelines while inflation eats you alive is tough to do for more than a couple months.

I'm proud I timed things a bit, shifted half out in the mid to high 4000s and bought back in recently. I know I had some very good luck and I am determined not to try it again.

I check in here mostly to hear what I know is the right message - just keep saving and stop paying attention to short term valuations.

Closer to retirement age is difficult as you have to focus on the short term to some extent.

Long term, its stay patient and consistent...and invest in funds/ETFs that aren't individually managed but instead track the S&P 500 as a whole. Its basically betting with the house over the long term. Chances are, its all going to be fine in the long term.

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The market has never stayed down.

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Of course, that is only over a 100 year period. Over the course of history, however, every market has eventually gone down and never come back up. This market will almost certainly come back up. However, given our addiction to deficit spending, one of these days the market will go down and never come back up.

Jabin said:

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Quote:

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The market has never stayed down.

---

Of course, that is only over a 100 year period. Over the course of history, however, every market has eventually gone down and never come back up. This market will almost certainly come back up. However, given our addiction to deficit spending, one of these days the market will go down and never come back up.

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And when/if that happens, it doesn't matter if it's invested, in cash, or Pokmon cards. It will ALL be worthless!

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And when/if that happens, it doesn't matter if it's invested, in cash, or Pokmon cards. It will ALL be worthless!

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Not necessarily, but possibly. If you could get out of one country with a collapsing market to another more stable country with something of value, jewels or Gold, for example, you might survive or do OK.

Jabin said:

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Quote:

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The market has never stayed down.

---

Of course, that is only over a 100 year period. Over the course of history, however, every market has eventually gone down and never come back up. This market will almost certainly come back up. However, given our addiction to deficit spending, one of these days the market will go down and never come back up.

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This is a worthless post.

Here are some more Nostradamus predictions for ya:
The economy will go into a recession.
The economy will go into a bull market
The economy will hit an all time high.
The economy will hit an all time low.

Now, just say when, and we can all be zillionaires.

How much commission did you pay on those indexed annuities and did you factor those costs into your returns?

What are the withdrawal penalties?

What in the hell did he have you invested in for 2020 and 2021?

You and your wife likely made a really really bad long term decision.

You feel warm and fuzzy now but at some point down the road you'll regret sacrificing your future financial freedom…or your kids/grandkids inheritance, so you could feel "safe".

Yeah I'd be careful about spiking the ball after 1 year.

JLB?

Jabin said:

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Quote:

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And when/if that happens, it doesn't matter if it's invested, in cash, or Pokmon cards. It will ALL be worthless!

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Not necessarily, but possibly. If you could get out of one country with a collapsing market to another more stable country with something of value, jewels or Gold, for example, you might survive or do OK.

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+ ammo

JSKolache said:

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Jabin said:

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And when/if that happens, it doesn't matter if it's invested, in cash, or Pokmon cards. It will ALL be worthless!

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Not necessarily, but possibly. If you could get out of one country with a collapsing market to another more stable country with something of value, jewels or Gold, for example, you might survive or do OK.

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+ ammo

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To steal a quote from Kyle Bass, "guns and gold baby!"

Indexed annuities are for suckers. And I'm a guy that doesn't mind an annuity in certain situations.

Yikes.... this is sad.