Check it out... I live in this really old, supposedly 'haunted' house called, Stock Market Manor.
Lived here for decades. Plan on living here for 50 more years. It's actually a murder house.
Back in 1918 some dude went mental, killed his whole family here. I got a great deal when I bought it 'cuz so many buyers were so scared of the place -still are.
Now, over the years I've seen and heard the random 'really freaky happening', but its never bothered me. Sun always came up. Everything's fine.
All this time I've had this neighbor down the road, Charlie Bond. Says he's a freelance security guard. Keeps trying to get me to hire 'im to patrol my property, install motion sensors, all sorts of different suggestions to protect me from my 'ghost'. I never took the bait.
But I just learned something... It turns out that the 100th anniversary of this murder is coming up, and in actual fact there are several newspaper records showing that people have died in these so-called 'haunted murder houses'. And it's almost always right around that anniversary date. They seem to suddenly get deathly ill and never really recover -dying long before anyone expected them to.
So, I'm thinking it'll be somewhat of a waste of money to hire Mr. Bond, but I might do it for a short time since. As a centennial event, the risk is only at this one point in my life. It's 'just in case' something 'gets me', and I'd like some advice about what sort of security measures you all think make the most sense right now?
General Forum response -
"Dude, you obviously have a HUGE fear of ghosts. You need to sell that place and move."
What? I ain't afraid of no ghost!? It's just a short term concern that I might die, because people have died and I can't be sure what caused it -only when is seems to begin. It shouldn't cost much to hire Mr. Bond, but it depends on if he's just going to do some Short Term patrols of the grounds, or if I let him rent this elaborate surveillance gear that he says might actually add quite a bit to the cost. He said, 'it depends', but didn't say 'on what' exactly.
"If you really think a ghost, or anything might kill you, you need to hire Mr. Bond for the rest of your life and be glad you didn't die yet."
Why? Records show that it's really only around a murder's 100th anniversary when people have been known to get deathly sick in the same house. If you live through that -whether you do get sick or not- I really don't hardly see any examples of mysterious deaths way outside that anniversary date?
"There's no reason to believe in ghosts. You need to grow up. A ghost will not kill you."
But, I don't believe in ghosts. I do, however, believe in the fact that really freaky, unexplained shit does happen in this house, and there are plenty of verified records of people dying starting right around the centennial of a murder inside the houses of those murders. Is that a ghost? I don't think so, but far more importantly, something killed those people who were in the situation I'm in now. Why not take a little precaution at this point?
"Just because some people died, doesn't mean you will."
Well, obviously. But my chances seem to have shot way up compared to any other time in my past, and ought to go way back down over the decades to come.
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*note
In actuality I think people who believe in ghosts are genuine suckers, but the story is meant to be an analogy for how it seems I'm being taken for wanting to guard against 'sequence of returns risk' at and around my approaching early retirement date. I've been, and still want to be, ~100% stocks for the long haul, but looking at a short term hedge of bonds (or other).
It seems like this concept, this 'around the start of retirement' strategy, is being called 'market timing' or just plain 'daft' to most people who've responded here. But it seems like logic based on statistics and rational possibilities to me.
Oh well... hope this was amusing to anyone.