Share market goes belly up - what would you do

MTR, i don't think the death knell will ever be sounded in property in Australia only where you invest from the start..The same as yourself with your spread of investment's in the USA and the way the Aussie dollar tracks the Greenback that would be something to keep an eye on..

With stand alone asx listed that i invest in ,and a few outside this country apart from serial litigants ever now and again they only work 2 ways,a cash generative business or a capital gain business some within the top40 are both ..
Looking at America and the benchmark Dow Jones index no matter what anyone tells it's still enjoying the 3 rd longest bull run in history even with all the media players still see it as a trap for the new ones that bought yesterday..

 

@Isla_Nublar in the 2019 LIC thread provided what I consider is a very good snap shot regarding attitudes and the impact of them.

 

The benefit of having no sizable pot sitting on the sidelines and a rules based approach to investing (only 1 rule, buy each month on pay day what we can afford), then I don't need to consider whether I'm going "all in" or "wiping the floor" or "bargain of a life time", for me it's just the same journey I've been on for years.

Now will I freak out at a drop of 50% and the media saying its only just getting started, absolutely I will, but then I will go back to my one rule, the only sensible thing that I can do, is to continue to buy what we can afford each pay day, some months that might be 0.5*X, other times X and sometimes 1.5*X, but I almost guarantee that those that are saying they are sitting in cash, waiting for the opportune time to invest are the ones who will lose out. There is never an opportune or best time to invest - that day was yesterday - the second best day is today.

I don't have to worry about my money halving overnight and I certainly don't waste time thinking about share prices as over the long term they are irrelevant. What matters is the income I obtain from my investments to lead my best life. Some may not agree with me, but again I imagine that these are people who generally think they are hotshot stock pickers, who have never compared their performance to anything, and have acted upon multiple "tips" from friends, family and taxi drivers.

Wishing you the best for maintaining your nerve, and putting your money to work at the bottom (the bottom as determined by hindsight approx 1-3 years later).

 

age comes into play here

 

Was the solution to drink lots of coffee to calm one’s nerves?

 

Something that took me a very long time to learn. There’s a great sense of peace that comes from not sitting on cash but getting it invested quickly such as you have described.

 

Are you suggesting that I'm young or old? Or are you suggesting that only a young person can follow my advice, or only an older person can? Or are you suggesting that I'm wise beyond my years and that the poster is likely younger and that's why they hold the beliefs that they do? Not having a go, just trying to understand the context of your comment.

 

And waffles which I'm having now thanks to @geoffw's suggestion.

Seriously it was @Isla_Nublar's comments in regard to his work colleagues who have financial degrees and yet are sucked in to the sirens call of timing and the next thing.

Attitudes. Always seems to get back to attitudes. Supposedly rational beings when we really are not in many, many ways. I plead guilty as well to a degree of internal turmoil. An entire industry is based on it.

 

My sister cashed out of shares during the GFC .

Last I heard, she hasn’t gone back in .

 

That is why I am a B+H investor, both property and shares.

I know - it is so last century but ...

 

There’s plenty like her. Some that I’m aware of who have been put off shares for life were those that invested heavily in Listed Property pre GFC assuming it was a safe and steady (rental) income stream. What a ride that was even for investors in the related index.

 

Too much hard work for me, especially in retirement.

I would rather shares for income. Totally passive.

But I prefer B+H property for growth, especially using leverage. Fairly passive.

Gotta love people who come to the party late .

 

The change to lending policies makes the shares v property debate interesting. Should you sell property to invest in shares, if you assume you cant refinance to use equity and if you sell you cant borrow to buy property later?

 

If an investor starts early in life ie 20s there is a better chance of riding the bumps ....thats kind of what I meant

 

not really, most investors on PC will be B+H

gotta hold assets to generate income

 

The share market performs two functions:
1. To raise capital for those company's who need access to it; and
2. To facilitate the orderly transfers of interests in companies between buyers and sellers.

To Y-Man's comment, the company is intimately involved in the first, and doesn't give a hoot about the second.

 

There is nothing, not one thing which prevents anyone of any age - provided they are over 18 years of age - from purchasing shares as a means to supplement their income. Bumps or no bumps.

The only qualifier to that is should someone be, um, of a certain age it will not result in them being a "self-funded" (such a yucky phrase) retiree unless they have won tattslotto or have come into money by other means. If they buy lotto tickets they probably wont have money to invest in any case so that strikes them out of the game.

 

the earlier the better property or shares

 

As investors we’ll all make mistakes, some very costly. The earlier one can get these out of their system the better whilst one still has plenty of human capital left to recover. So I suppose the younger one can start the journey of wealth accumulation the better.