Not my mistake but my neighbors.
My neighbor played it safe.
I've told the story before about my neighbor, he took all his $200k out of stocks after 9-11–2001. About four years ago we were setting at his kitchen table and he brought out his investment statement, and was wondering if things were all right. I looked it over and it was all in cash equivalents, these cash equivalents pay a little more than a bank deposit, but don’t keep up with inflation. I said, you don't have any stocks, he said yes, I look it all out of stocks after 9-11. I said you really should have some stocks! I tried to get him to just get his feet wet by investing $10,000. He wasn’t interested. I went home and calculated the gains he missed over those 18 years. His $200,000 would now be over $800,000 if he had invested in a simple Total Stock Market Fund, such as VTSAX. Then in the last 4 years his $800,000 would have grown to $1,080,000. Such a life changing missed opportunity. Playing it safe lost my neighbor Over $800,000. Yesterday he was over and I ask if he had any interest in the stock market, he said its doing terrible, I said would rather it be more expensive to buy? He had a blank stare, I said you want it to be cheap when you buy. He went on to talk about a coworker, that has $800,000, I didn’t have the heart to tell him he would have over $1M if he had stayed in the market back in 2001. At this point he is 59, so, I'm a little shy to mention the issue much, because time to recover is limited. You can lead a horse to water...
