absolute lack of investing confidence…

[Coronita]

I’ll add my 2 cents…

I think oil and energy are going to do pretty well.. MSide note…Me thinks europe is going to be seriously considering where to second-source it’s energy sources from aside from Russia… Now that Putin is demonstrating he’s highly unstable and how he/Russia can confiscate assets on a whim…

I’m hoping that as we become more and more a net energy exporter, that it does the economy some good.

[Jazzman]

[quote=earlyretirement]
Like some, I haven’t gotten in the stock market as heavy as I wish I did watching the way it’s gone on a tear.
[/quote]

You can’t beat yourself up about this. A lot of FAs got it wrong too. Things will probably/hopefully get back to normal, unless we’ve forgotten what that is. If you can’t buy at a good price then don’t buy. Better to cut back on expenses than take risks. Advisers with 20:20 vision and “I told you so”, “stay in for the long haul” mentality are just doing what they do; protecting their livelihoods. I very much doubt many anticipated the run we’ve had.

Putin and Russia seem to be getting a lot of media attention. Perhaps not surprising, but it’s the kind of fear-mongering attention that is curious. It has re-ignited a cold-war mentality, which is strange considering it is Russia that is under pressure here. People like John McCain seem incapable of critical thinking vis-a-vis US foreign policy. Things never resolve themselves especially when both sides of the argument remain sanctimoniously dogged in their self-righteousness. The way the Republican party is using this episode to slam Obama is so transparent and futile.

Putin does not want to lose the Ukraine, and he may be using Crimea as a side show because it is his strongest base from which to launch a risky strategy. I fail to see why Sevastopol is so strategically important, since the Turks control the Bosphorous. If the new Ukrainian authorities are going to fight over Crimea, then they start to look suspicious. The other question is whether Europe wants the Ukraine. It turned down Turkey and has strict criteria for joining the club. The poor state of the Ukrainian economy means it will have to go it alone on the path to improvement. The Ukraine has more in common with Russia that western Europe. It uses a cyrillic alphabet and share many words with Russian. Kiev, with its beautiful churches with cupolas are reminiscent of Russia, and is mostly orthodox as well. However, they are defiantly independent as recent events show, and have every right to choose their own destiny. I think the best the West can do is be there for them, but not force Putin into a corner over this.

[UCGal]

I’m at a slightly different asset allocation than Warren Buffet proposes – but I’m doing essentially what he’s recommending.

What I advise here is essentially identical to certain instructions I’ve laid out in my will. One bequest provides that cash will be delivered to a trustee for my wife’s benefit. (I have to use cash for individual bequests, because all of my Berkshire shares will be fully distributed to certain philanthropic organizations over the ten years following the closing of my estate.) My advice to the trustee could not be more simple: Put 10% of the cash in short-term government bonds and 90% in a very low-cost S&P 500 index fund. (I suggest Vanguard’s.) I believe the trust’s long-term results from this policy will be superior to those attained by most investors – whether pension funds, institutions or individuals – who employ high-fee managers.

http://www.businessinsider.com/warren-buffett-recommends-sp-500-index-2014-3#ixzz2v6kMYdzm

Index funds with an asset allocation of equities and bonds. I’m at a 60/40 mix… The key is not to sell when the market goes down… and to do the counter-intuitive – when equities go up a lot – sell some and buy bonds, when bonds go up a lot, sell some and buy equities. Rebalancing and having a mix of bonds and equities is like dampening the volatility of the market.

[Jazzman]

UCGal, I think it really depends at what stage of life you are. For retirees dependent on income, fixed income and capital preservation is important. If you you some way from retirement, you have time to recover the knocks. I don’t blame anyone for selling out, or sitting it out, or not even bothering with stocks at all. In fact, only half of Americans invest in shares, and even less in other countries.

[Coronita]

Why is it every time I sell a stock, it always goes through the roof the next day?

F me…

[moneymaker]

That used to happen to me all the time too, but as long as you are making money best enjoy that it didn’t go down while you owned it. I always seemed to sell on the upside and never at the peak.

[The-Shoveler]

[quote=scaredyclassic]my main investmentsare going to be stuff I think is undervalued that i find at yard sales/ebay and hold. For instance, I found two japanese fishing lures new in package, purchased for about a buck. They go for about 50.00 each on ebay. I plan to hold for 10years. who’s to say what the top of the japanese fishing lure market wil be? I couldn’t even begin to say. I intend to buy hard goods i think have potential, put them in a box, and hold them until 2025. that’s my plan. that and 10,000 mercury dimes in a bank safe deposit box.[/quote]

Actually I think this is a good Idea, it seems the guys in China do the same type of thing with basic building materials (copper, gravel etc…).

[joec]

[quote=flu]Why is it every time I sell a stock, it always goes through the roof the next day?

F me…

[/quote]

god, I hate FB…Good thing I bought some back in the 20s…It seems when I buy companies I hate, it always goes up to piss me off. At least I can financially benefit with them. I see it as a win win (stock down, yay! I don’t like them…stock up, yay, I’m richer!)

I’ll be picking up some TWTR when there is a pullback as well since I don’t care for them neither.

[Author]

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