StrangeSox

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Apr 25, 2013 -> 08:38 AM) And if they had held it and kept investing in it they'd be MORE than fine right now...13 years later. Giving them 2 more years until retirement. And right now, they should be moving out of the S&P and into cash, or bonds. Or they'd have lost their job 3 years ago at the age of 60, been pretty much unemployable since then and drained their retirement accounts just paying the bills.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Apr 25, 2013 -> 08:33 AM) Most of it is lack of education on how to invest. People simply don't know, because most simply don't care. They believe in what I call the Dr. Evil method of life planning. They put their money into highly elaborate schemes and simply assume "everything's going to work out in their favor". Yet they'll do research for weeks when buying a new f***ing television. Or they don't have money to invest in the first place. I dunno, regardless of the "whys," this idea of shifting people (not everyone!) to defined-contribution 401k's hasn't really worked. There's going to be a huge wave of elderly poverty coming.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Apr 25, 2013 -> 08:31 AM) Those people should have been doing what SS stated, and moving into cash or bonds, AKA "money holdings". You don't stay in the stock market when you're nearing retirement. What messed those people up was greed. They saw their portfolios increasing in value, so they stayed in the market DESPITE being near retirement, instead of moving their money into cash or bonds. I'm no fan of cash or bonds for investing purposes, but I am for holding purposes, and when you're set to retire, you want to start holding value, not increasing it with risk. I hear there were some great AAA-rated securities they could have moved to! Someone could have been 50 in 2000 and not expecting to retire for 15 years. Their entire pre-2000 S&P Index money will have seen zero growth. Even the automatic "target retirement" funds that are supposed to adjust for you have performed poorly on top of their expensive management fees.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Apr 25, 2013 -> 08:25 AM) Not for those that cared enough about their money to learn about it, it wasn't. The point is, most people don't care, they have no idea what they're purchasing, or why...and they also have no idea of the fees they're paying, or why. Who does this? I simply cannot understand why a person doesn't take a more active approach with their own damn money. I guess what they say is true...a fool and his money are easily parted. As I said, it's more than just what investment options you picked in your 401(k). Decades of stagnant wages with rising cost-of-living meant people had less and less to set aside for retirement in the first place. Plus a lot of 401(k) plans, if your employer even offers one, have s***ty options and high fees.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Apr 25, 2013 -> 08:22 AM) That's not quite how an investment into the S&P500 works, though. You see, the way it actually works is this. An index fund sells you "shares", as these investments go, over time. So, during the peak, and after the peak, I've been loading up on shares, at high points, at mid points and at low points. So when it crashed, it actually benefited me (and anyone else that didn't panic sell), because now you're buying cheap shares. Now the market begins to rise again, and those cheap shares are no longer 12$, they're 102$. You can't look at it in line with the actual value of the S&P500. Just because it's back at the same level has nothing to do with how a 401k compounds. As a matter of fact, that's the exact WRONG way to look at investing with a 401k. I understand dollar-cost-averaging. But that doesn't help the people who built up the bulk of their wealth in the years prior to 2000--those dollars still haven't seen any growth since then. Most "retirement calculators" give some lifetime-return-average, but I'd like to see scenarios run with actual annual (or even quarterly) return rates along with realistic lifetime contribution inputs. Probably would take a couple of hours to throw together in excel (just make sure you're summing the right cells!)

My in-laws are sort of going through a similar situation with a condo they're selling. Someone came in and offered what they were asking (which was about 60% of what they paid in 2004 before putting $10-15k into renovating it back then), then was trying to nickle-and-dime over some repairs. Now they just found out that the FHA appraisal was several thousand less than the selling price. They're so sick of that place that they're willing to take the appraisal amount as long as they drop all of the repair claims, hopefully it all works out.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Apr 25, 2013 -> 08:18 AM) I don't see where the gamble is, and you've yet to show anyone. Well the 401(k)-in-lieu-of-pensions experiment has been a spectacular failure for a majority of people, but there's a lot more to that than just what your mix of investment choices were.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Apr 25, 2013 -> 08:13 AM) If you had a 401k 100% invested in the S&P500 in 2001, when the market crashed, a few years later you would have had all the losses back and then some. Same goes for 2008. A mere two years later and you would have have it all back plus a bunch more. Aggressive my ass. More like safe. FWIW we only recently crossed back over the 2000 peak, so that was 12-13 years of essentially no growth for any of that money before taking inflation into account.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 25, 2013 -> 07:44 AM) No cash, no bonds. Not really recommended for retirement money. The rule of thumb is one percent in "safe" investments for every year old you are. I don't think any of the 401(k) options I've had through four different plans now offered bonds or just simply cash. Had to pick some sort of (fee-generating) security.

lol, probably didn't realize they were dealing with someone with a legal background

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Apr 24, 2013 -> 10:30 AM) ^^^ He's just another Jihad idiot Mother Jones documents just how clueless these guys were:

Iowa state GOP legislators want to cut the pay of justices who ruled in favor of gay marriage I dunno, voting to cut the judicial branch's pay when they rule against you doesn't really seem to be keeping with the spirit of "separation of powers"

QUOTE (lostfan @ Apr 24, 2013 -> 03:49 PM) Why? What is even the point of doing something like that? To accomplish what, exactly? who the hell knows. to me, though, a picture of a really long line of people waiting to vote would make me think positively about mail-in ballots. QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Apr 24, 2013 -> 03:50 PM) lol In the top picture the lady in the hoodie has the same face as the lady standing next to her. QUOTE (CrimsonWeltall @ Apr 24, 2013 -> 03:51 PM) They photoshopped out "too small hoodie" black guy, but there are still at least 2 other black people clearly visible. that's the best part--the photoshop job is horrendous and they didn't even get everyone.

Conservative Voter ID mailer photoshops out black people

the mars rover drew a giant penis on the ground: http://www.autoblog.com/2013/04/24/mars-ro...-on-red-planet/

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Apr 24, 2013 -> 11:24 AM) This is what I've found. Especially if you travel anywhere. AT&T and Verizon are the most expensive, but their networks have the most coverage, and I think Verizon is even a bit better than AT&T in this regard. The savings outside of AT&T/Verizon are nice, but the coverage just isn't there, making it not worth it to me. I take frequent road trips, especially in the summer, and it's nice having coverage regardless of where I happen to go, Sprint and Tmobile just can't do this for me. That's discouraging. I went with Verizon specifically because of travel.

Long-Term Unemployment Is The Biggest Crisis In America — This Photo Shows How Much Politicians Care 1 legislator bothered to show up for the hearing.

I'm considering switching to Sprint when my contract with Verizon is up. Verizon's coverage is great but it's just too damn expensive.

Looks like another school covering up for an athlete's rape in Michigan http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2013/04/...of-rape-victim/

huh?

QUOTE (iamshack @ Apr 23, 2013 -> 02:12 PM) I smell what they're stepping in (no pun intended), but do we really need to question the media's motives on this decision? Oh I think that article captures it: Over three times as many people died in West than were killed by the two brothers, but one is a story about terrorism and police manhunts and foreign trips and the other is about safety regulations and inadequate OSHA inspections. That doesn't mean the West story isn't even more important and more relevant to everyday Americans' lives, though.

Some (very critical) thoughts over why this story is getting so little media coverage despite so many people being killed by what appears to have been a completely preventable explosion. http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mik...d70e_story.html

suspect was released http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/23/us/ricin-sus...ased/?hpt=us_c2

Here's the transcript of Dzokhar's bedside arraignment http://gawker.com/tsarnaev-brothers-acted-...amerl-477804884 I'm glad we're doing it the right way.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Apr 23, 2013 -> 10:01 AM) Sorry it took so long for me to comment on this, but this charge bothers me a bit... If that qualifies for the definition of "weapon of mass destruction", then by that rational, GW actually did find WMD's in Iraq. Seems like we're being a bit loosey-goosey on the definition of a WMD here. I liked that they had to jump through the interstate commerce hoops too.