Author Topic: Short term money in the stock market  (Read 1206 times)

Annie101

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Short term money in the stock market
« on: March 24, 2020, 08:31:19 PM »
We have been saving for a travel sabbatical for 8 years now, to be used in 2 years, and we left a good chunk of it (half) in the stock market.  I know, so dumb.  We just lost $16k.  What to do now?  Sell what’s left or hope it doesn’t go down further in the next two years??
« Last Edit: March 24, 2020, 08:51:54 PM by Annie101 »

The_Pretender

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Re: Short term money in the stock market
« Reply #1 on: March 25, 2020, 03:35:45 AM »
put the other half in the market? 

Do you think it'll take more than a year for this market to claw back more than 50% of it's losses?

Rdy2Fire

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Re: Short term money in the stock market
« Reply #2 on: March 25, 2020, 09:48:46 AM »
put the other half in the market? 

Do you think it'll take more than a year for this market to claw back more than 50% of it's losses?

AGREED!! I definitely wouldn't take what's left out but given it's for a trip that's still far out I'd dump the rest or a portion into the market. Of course that depends on how risk averse you are

LightStache

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Re: Short term money in the stock market
« Reply #3 on: March 28, 2020, 10:58:48 AM »
Having a portion of your sabbatical funds in the market wasn't a dumb move. It's a ten year period, which is a substantial amount of time.

Given that you're tempted to pull out now, I definitely would NOT put the other half in, but I also wouldn't lock in the losses and pull out.

Instead make a plan to transition to a short term AA over the next couple of years. Like for instance at sabbatical minus 12 months, S-12, sell 1/12 of your stock holdings every month. You could go to low duration bonds or a CD ladder.

Worst case scenario you just delay the sabbatical or find ways to save even more! First world problem for sure. :D