How Much are You Investing in the Market in Today vs. 2019/2020 Time Frame

[GardenBaker]

The stock market has obviously taken a wild ride lately. With the economic news of a recession, rising costs, etc., I'm curious how many of you are investing today what you were able or willing to invest when the stock market was having it's great runs in 2019/2020 time frame?

Of course, timing the market is bad and the ups always outweigh the down, but I'm genuine curious how this is effecting my peers.

[Psychstache]

The stock market has obviously taken a wild ride lately. With the economic news of a recession, rising costs, etc., I'm curious how many of you are investing today what you were able or willing to invest when the stock market was having it's great runs in 2019/2020 time frame?

Of course, timing the market is bad and the ups always outweigh the down, but I'm genuine curious how this is effecting my peers.

While the amounts are different, the answers are the same: As much as I can afford to. My life circumstances/expenses are different compared to 2019/20, but in both scenarios all my available funds are going into the market.

[ATtiny85]

Not having any impact on me. We upped our monthly taxable (all VTSAX) by a hundred bucks after a theoretical pay bump this year.

Will go up a little more in 2023 with the higher 401k limit.

Been on this path since the 90s. Will stay on it for a few more years, then go into drawdown. I view this year as a positive. What a break to have a correction when we are still going full bore. Of course, a positive 20% would have also looked really nice in the accounts…

[Villanelle]

About the same in real dollars, slightly more in nominal.  The nominal increase is due to the accounts we max, for which the limits go up slightly every year.  We have changed nothing in our plan or strategy since 2019 (or earlier).

[Ladychips]

I chose less but only because I retired in 2021 and so have less to invest.  So sad. If I was still drawing a paycheck, it would be the same because I was putting everything I could in the market and I'd still be doing that.

[dandarc]

Definitely less - I went so far in 2020 as to take advantage of 0% balance transfer offers to raise money to buy into the market. That particular move has clearly worked out well so far, but for non-financial reasons I'm never doing that again. Also started a coast-FIRE of sorts in 2021, so there is substantially less money coming in.

[GilesMM]

We've never tried to time the market too much. It has proven difficult if not impossible.

[volleyballer]

While the amounts are different, the answers are the same: As much as I can afford to. My life circumstances/expenses are different compared to 2019/20, but in both scenarios all my available funds are going into the market.

Same for me - my wife returned to work after a couple years off for maternity, so our income, and therefore amounts going to investments, have increased quite a bit compared to 2020.

[HPstache]

We have unfortunately had to reduce our contributions because inflation / growing kids have really been reducing how much we have excess to save.

[ChickenStash]

I'm still in the "as much as I can" boat. The real numbers went down a bit this past year due to having to pull some money out for other things (ie. negative investment) but the auto-investments are trucking along at the same pace with the same intent. The increase in 401k and IRA limits will shift where money goes a bit but the actual amounts will be roughly the same.

[Philociraptor]

We're still investing everything left over at the end of the month once the bills are paid, which results in slightly more: our incomes have risen quite a bit since then, but we're also paying for the wife's grad school degree; will be much more starting next summer when she's done.

[SpareChange]

While the amounts are different, the answers are the same: As much as I can afford to. My life circumstances/expenses are different compared to 2019/20, but in both scenarios all my available funds are going into the market.

Same.

[Heckler]

Unfortunately less, if you mean the US market. 

From 2015-2020 I pushed hard MMM style to fill my RRSP, contributing 30-40% of gross income to VTI.  Now it's full and I am stuck with my maximum 18% contribution, but also because I hold VTI in my spousal RSP, due to tax attributions laws I've also stopped contributing to it for 3 years, so we can plan to take income from it at a low tax rate.  My 18% goes towards EAFE currently, not US, due to asset location.

Spouse is also working 1-2 days per week, plus side hustles, and 100% of their income goes to their taxable account, investing in Canadian-eligible dividends only (therefore a negative tax rate on juicy dividends).

We've also built up a significant cash EF (<1 year though), with plans of needing it in the next few years.

I'm getting ready to rebalance into the US market soon though. 

But... acc. to my IPS:  Rebalance March annually if more than 5% off target.   Currently, I'm 1-2% off-targets, so I'll go back to being dead (the best investor is a dead one who doesn't fuss with his accounts).

[wageslave23]

Mine is less. Still max 401ks but I stopped contributing extra cash last summer. The market felt way too hot.  I don't time the market normally and wouldn't sell. But I held back contributions. I put some in around May. Will probably put the rest in soon.  I've put 40k into ibonds over the past year as well.

[PDXTabs]

I'm investing approximately twice as much now because I have more money to invest. My asset allocation has not changed to speak of.

[JAYSLOL]

+1 to “the same” being “all available funds to invest”.

[aboatguy]

Investing the same, wish it was more !

[mistymoney]

+1 to “the same” being “all available funds to invest”.

I voted "more" but the above is true for me. I just have more right now...

[GardenBaker]

Thank you all for responding! I work in payroll and have noticed a trend amongst our employees that they have stopped contributing to the company retirement plan or lowered their contributions. Of course, it's a general blue collar business and many employees live paycheck to paycheck. It had me concerned and I wanted to see how others stood, who like me don't live paycheck to paycheck. I have been contributing slightly less this year compared to 2020 as I have been using that money to pay off some low interest debt that was eating at me by it's pure existence. Now that it is cleared up, I'm throwing all I can at the market for the rest of this year and into 2023. I'm far away from retirement, so fortunately I can ride the wave of the market.

[Villanelle]

Thank you all for responding! I work in payroll and have noticed a trend amongst our employees that they have stopped contributing to the company retirement plan or lowered their contributions. Of course, it's a general blue collar business and many employees live paycheck to paycheck. It had me concerned and I wanted to see how others stood, who like me don't live paycheck to paycheck. I have been contributing slightly less this year compared to 2020 as I have been using that money to pay off some low interest debt that was eating at me by it's pure existence. Now that it is cleared up, I'm throwing all I can at the market for the rest of this year and into 2023. I'm far away from retirement, so fortunately I can ride the wave of the market.

I'm sure some people are slowing or stopping contributions because they've heard "the market is bad".  But I suspect most people who are reducing contributions are doing so because they need the money.

I do think that the MMM isn't necessarily representative of the public-at-large, but I'd be quite surprised if more than a few outliers here were decreasing contributions based on market conditions (as opposed to maybe decreasing because they just had a major expense, had a change in job, etc.). 

[mistymoney]

Thank you all for responding! I work in payroll and have noticed a trend amongst our employees that they have stopped contributing to the company retirement plan or lowered their contributions. Of course, it's a general blue collar business and many employees live paycheck to paycheck. It had me concerned and I wanted to see how others stood, who like me don't live paycheck to paycheck. I have been contributing slightly less this year compared to 2020 as I have been using that money to pay off some low interest debt that was eating at me by it's pure existence. Now that it is cleared up, I'm throwing all I can at the market for the rest of this year and into 2023. I'm far away from retirement, so fortunately I can ride the wave of the market.

Not surprised at all. Our company's 401k provider is staging interventions (aka informational seminars). No doubt due to decreases.

[mistymoney]

Thank you all for responding! I work in payroll and have noticed a trend amongst our employees that they have stopped contributing to the company retirement plan or lowered their contributions. Of course, it's a general blue collar business and many employees live paycheck to paycheck. It had me concerned and I wanted to see how others stood, who like me don't live paycheck to paycheck. I have been contributing slightly less this year compared to 2020 as I have been using that money to pay off some low interest debt that was eating at me by it's pure existence. Now that it is cleared up, I'm throwing all I can at the market for the rest of this year and into 2023. I'm far away from retirement, so fortunately I can ride the wave of the market.

I'm sure some people are slowing or stopping contributions because they've heard "the market is bad".  But I suspect most people who are reducing contributions are doing so because they need the money.

I do think that the MMM isn't necessarily representative of the public-at-large, but I'd be quite surprised if more than a few outliers here were decreasing contributions based on market conditions (as opposed to maybe decreasing because they just had a major expense, had a change in job, etc.).

points!

It could be that some people reevaluate where to save based on market. So if someone is investing in stocks via work 401k but wants to invest directly into treasuries right now, they might lower the 401k contribution to fund treasurydirect purchases.

[JLee]

My income is a lot higher, so I'm investing more.

[Michael in ABQ]

I am investing less, but solely because I have less disposable income to invest now. In 2019/2020 I was deployed overseas and receiving non-taxed combat pay that I could put directly into a Roth 401K. Now, I am self-employed, and we took a reduced salary in order to leave more money in the business to help it grow (purchase inventory, advertising, investing in a new website, etc.). I did increase the percentage of my pay from the National Guard going into retirement savings but that's only a fraction of my income.

[charis]

We increase every year as the max contribution limits increase.  That said, it's probably less this year because we did a cash-out refi in 2020 and put most of our stimulus $ into the market.