Ha, when I started reading this thread and saw that the bit about money in the bank earning 6% I said, whoa! Where? Then I noticed the date, lol. I lurk here frequently but don’t post that much.
I’m a former QCOMer, did really well with hoarded stock option grants, left the company a little over 5 years ago. In late 07 I started moving most of my money out of equities, so I caught the big pullback but very little of the subsequent gains. Still, my balance sheet is great, I can’t complain. My first house, a small beach cottage, was paid off years ago and is rented out. Our current home is a two-on-one with the rental from the other unit paying about half our mortgage (which is about 40% LTV). I already have a lot stashed away in gold ETFs and bullion (including 24 Krugerrands that I bought before Y2K at about 280 I think.) Have a lot in in bond funds, and quite a bit still in cash spread among several banks to stay within FDIC limits.
Looking forward, I have no clue what to do. I could pay off our current mortgage, but I had also been considering buying a small 4- to 6- unit apt complex in a decent neighborhood. I did seriously consider one on Hershel St in La Jolla but the numbers just didn’t pencil out. I like the beach areas but from what I’ve seen beach R.E. still seems overvalued. The DOW is still at 14 times earnings and the S&P’s over 17. I see little earnings growth potential near term, so I still think equities are overvalued as well.
For a while I was considering buying muni bonds near maturity and then holding them till maturity. Last time I seriously looked was about year ago. There were still some OK returns to be found, but I never proceeded. I wasn’t especially optimistic about many municipalities’ ability to pay back their obligations, and I’m not any more optimistic about that today.
Gold seems like it’s in a bubble, but then congress and Helicopter Ben are scaring the shit out of me, so maybe even at > 1300 gold’s not so crazy?
I don’t even care about growth anymore, I just want to hang on to what I have. I don’t want to get creamed when It happens, whatever It is.
