Win or lose, it seems like forced “investments” are the norm.
Totally agree. Most people go through life and “invest” when they have to. They tend to not put much thought in the cycle of economy. Hence, if you’re born in the right time frame, everything will look rosy while if you’re born a few years late, things are not so rosy unless you make a conscious decision to delay your life cycle to be in sync w/ the economic cycle.
I.E. if you’re born in 1973, graduated w/ a BS in 1995, enjoy the upswing of .com, got married in 2000 and need a house, so you cash out in 2000, take your winning from .com and put it in a house, now you can retire. But if you’re born 7 years later, graduate in 2002 @ the peak of the .com crash, can’t find a job, much less buy a house. 3 years later after some hard saving, got married or just want to buy a house. Now you just lost all the money you saved over the 3 years for the down payment. Kinda suck huh? For us unlucky people who are born in a certain time frame, we would have to try that much harder to realize the economic cycle and delay your house buying process a few years.