Thanks for the incredible feedback, guys.
What I take out of all this is that my thinking/ actions is "timing the market" - as suspected. That said, I read that it may be acceptable in this case. I feel like this will be a huge point of focus in my learning going forward - when/ what is okay, and that it may not be a black-and-white rule - as with everything in life. I do feel like I'm taking actions without having as clear an understanding of the underlying systems as I would like, but that will come with experience, and this is it. The above responses do give me significant extra confidence in my ideas.
Actions:
- Every monthly contribution going forward, I will get 100% stocks. Until things rise up again, significantly.
- I transferred $1k cash into my investment account, just waiting there.
- IF the markets drop again (to a certain metric I've set) then I will buy VEQT (100% equity) with the cash.
- I have some reading to do on bonds and NAV and see if I want to sell off my VBAL (80/20) and buy 100% VEQT, or maybe 95/5 or so - the 5 coming from VAB (100% bond).
- IF the markets do go up (I don't see it, doesn't make sense to me), then I will decide whether to invest the $1000, or just put it back in my savings.
- Regardless, going forward, I think I will drop the VBAL buy a blend of VEQT and VAB, set to my desired ratio. Most probably a 90/10, but way more reading on this before I decide on a final ratio. Excellent idea to look at the Vanguard funds, MustacheAndaHalf.
Official retirement is in 35 years. But I currently have my goal to reach FI in 20 years, at the latest. I do see myself as very securely employed. That said, if hell really breaks loose, and I do lose employment - then I can always sell off a portion of my stocks to live off of - IF absolutely required (low living costs, which EI would cover 100%). We must also be closer to the bottom now that I'm buying than we were before this whole thing started, so my selling losses would be mitigated somewhat in such a scenario. Also, as I see it, if there's no risk, there is limited reward at best. So I am okay with risk, so long as it is calculated and understood.
Misc. Rambling:
I can't help but be very excited about what the markets are doing now. Over the past year I've been reading books and blogs during every spare minute, and now I actually get to see it all in action, real-time. Very educational, and these events put some good experience to the information. I have a huge list of questions to look into. One interesting thing is that this is supposed to be a really bad crash, but I was personally expecting way, way worse, having read so many horror stories. So this gives huge confidence going forward, so long as I'm as prepared as is possible for such events.
Whatever I do, I will not take unreasonable risks (i.e. selling all now, waiting for an even bigger dip). I'm excited/ hopeful to make some returns years down the line because of my actions now, but the sums I'm dealing with are not life-changing (~15k) so it won't kill me if I mess up now, as this would teach for later in time when the sums will be more impactful. At this point, the experience is far more valuable than any returns, and would be worth any losses. This will happen again, years down the line, and I want to have first-hand experience, and a very detailed contingency list/ understanding - to attempt to take advantage of it then.