Re: Where the hell is this market going?

On Sat 13 Aug 2005 11:41:39a, Steve K wrote in
news:22741-42FE22C3-151@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:

> Mike>>Yup, I've got/had a good financial advisor since the day I
> handed over all the checks that totaled, 401K + my cashed out pension.
> Started getting my 72t'd monthly income (Went with the method that
> gave me the highest monthy income <And glad I did>). Then Apr.2000
> hit. Well, my advisor has been really good, weathering my concerns.
> Moving things around for me, within the allowed funds (72T
> limitations), as I see fit, sometimes advising, and usually correctly
> so, me to sit tight. He has had me so well diversified that in
> addition to the income I have rec'd in the last six yrs. of
> retirement, I have only gone down less than 1/4 percent, .226% to be
> exact (This through all that three yr. crash). But of course 2003
> helped a great deal. One of my funds (Capital Appreciation did around
> 40% in 2003). Anyway, none of us Telco retirees saw any of it coming
> and got blind sided. Yes, we knew a bubble was bound to burst, but not
> be nuclear detonated>>LOL. We all expected to rec. our "EFTs"
> (Electronic fund xfrs, for those wondering ;-) )). And still see some
> increase, no matter how small. Anyway you all know the outcome. .226%
> is virtually nothing. But the last six yrs. of income so far appear to
> be totally on me. But no matter how optimistic my financial advisor
> seems (It is his job to be optimistic, especially since telelphone
> conversations are recorded>>LOL), If another downward crash begins, I
> will not allow our funds to drop below the point that will not get me
> to 63 (What I call, "My Age Guage"***>), now at 64.347 and fortunately
> rising from 59.7 that was July 2002 (July 4th week), with an allowed
> 72T change. I used to use 62 as a limit, but 63 would get my Wife to
> Social Sec's widow age of 60, if I kicked off :-).Earlier I said that
> I am glad that I used the method (there were three, I believe) that
> got me the most monthly income. That has allowed me to fill our CD
> (Backup) bucket. That is now at 48% of what our invested funds bucket
> has left. So that CD return plus social sec. will keep us in rib eyes,
> maybe not t-bones>>LOL.
>
>
>
> *** Definition of "My Age Guage" is IF the market does not go up or
> down, staying stagnate, how long (Till what age will our funds last).
> My advisor says this is not really realistic since the market has
> averaged over 10% since 1925, including the great depression, and
> every down cycle since, and usually always goes up. But this guage
> will get me to where I need to be. And he's probably correct. Every
> litle bit of positive return, no matter how small, above, NO CHANGE,
> increases my Age Guage. So the funds may very well last my lifetime.
> Especially with some planned adjustments.
>
> Heck, since retiring, monitoring these funds/market, is almost like a
> job in itself>>LOL LOL.
>
>

Sounds like you did not have any bad investment experiences during the
market drop with your investments. (-.00226) was great! I'm not sure
what your real complaint is. Did you lose your pension from the Telco
and have only an unplanned 72T to live on? Now that would be real
bad... but not really the market's fault.

We were down as much as 10% a few years ago (and not complaining) and
have recouped all a long time back and have been hitting all time highs
in recent months. Although, as I mentioned we have CDs, I don't plan on
that to be the major component of my future plans (unless we actually
run out of oil, water or beer during my lifetime).

Both now and when we were down, we (and my parents' portfolios which I
manage also) still were able to maintain nice investment income streams,
so I don't worry too much about the next bear.

We have also been retired for 6 years. I felt well prepared. Took an
excellent "retirement 101" type class (Investing for a successful
Retirement) ahead of time with a private financial review at the end
that gave me some valuable insights on how financial advisors look at
your numbers and assumptions. I was later able to set up linked spread
sheets to show the same thing projected out many years but now I was
able vary the assumptions from the one free set they printed and
reviewed for me. I also had a complete physical to make sure that I
didn't need any replacement parts before announcing my retirement. (I
know, I may be hit by a truck tomorrow - or worse yet (epitaph-wise),
have my head smashed by one of those green chunks of frozen toilet water
from the sky).

Our HR department also had a real good part day confidential retirement
seminar and would send you projections of your benfits on 2 or 3 target
retirement dates. It was very confidential except if you mentioned it
to someone, say at your retirement party, they might tell you Oh yeah,
they had Pete, Steve and your Divisional Vice President in their class!


--

Mike
.

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