Author Topic: Nervous day for me - $27K added in to VG  (Read 3247 times)

Rollin

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Nervous day for me - $27K added in to VG
« on: February 02, 2016, 11:20:26 AM »
Just thought I'd express a little about how I have felt the last two days while I worked to get my Vanguard account linked to my Capitol One account.  That allows me to direct $$ to or from, but this time I set up a $2,000/month automatic withdrawal to be placed in my VG account (asset allocated comfortably for me) and a lump sum of $25,000.

I was nervous about hitting the send button yesterday once I had it all set up and ready to go.  It is funny how so much flashes before your eyes (at least mine) when you put so much money away like that.  I spent the evening watching videos of John Bogle and listening to him talk about the long-haul for investing, how the market has always come out ahead, and the benefit of index investing (with low fees).  My initial thoughts are that I'm retiring later this year and it is too risky to place so much into the market (60 stocks/40 bonds actually), but then I hear another voice say that just because I am retiring doesn't mean that I should stop investing.  In fact, I must keep investing if I want to use the 4% SWR.  Not sure where I picked up that first notion, but it is hard to shake that knee-jerk reaction.  I got what I think is good advice here a year or so ago that was about the latter (i.e., that you don't stop investing when you RE).

I also feel that it was a little bit market timing on my part, as I may not have sent so much in right away had we not had the recent drop in values over the past month.  I know that is somewhat irrational as well, but anyway I am glad we were down a bit.  Odd though that I was happy we were down a bit, but that means that my already invested money was down too!  I guess it is just emotion huh?

catccc

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Re: Nervous day for me - $27K added in to VG
« Reply #1 on: February 02, 2016, 12:39:24 PM »
In February 2014 I dumped $80K into VG as a lump sum, allocated across 3 different fund choices.  I actually clicked through so fast I made a mistake and bought way more bond than I planned to buy.   Oops.  Had to do an exchange.  Strangely, once I had decided to make the move hitting the submit button was actually a little too easy.

Anyway, it was weird to move so much at once.  But it's a nice little exercise in risk tolerance.  I moved another $40K or so a few months later it wasn't as big a deal.

Of course at that time there didn't seem to be as much volatility.   But the reality is if it's going to be sitting there for a while, it'll probably all be fine.

All that said, I don't do any regular taxable investment contributions.  I max out my 401K throughout the year,

GrowingTheGreen

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Re: Nervous day for me - $27K added in to VG
« Reply #2 on: February 02, 2016, 12:43:01 PM »
You should be celebrating! Congratulations on making a move that will likely improve your financial future.

The best time to start for a long-term investor is now :)

Rollin

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Re: Nervous day for me - $27K added in to VG
« Reply #3 on: February 02, 2016, 01:12:02 PM »
You should be celebrating! Congratulations on making a move that will likely improve your financial future.

The best time to start for a long-term investor is now :)

I am breathing a little better and agree with you that it will improve my financial future.  I really appreciate this forum for comments like yours and from catccc because in my circle there just aren't many people to talk to about this (unless you pay them!).

Thanks!

In February 2014 I dumped $80K into VG as a lump sum, allocated across 3 different fund choices.  I actually clicked through so fast I made a mistake and bought way more bond than I planned to buy.   Oops.  Had to do an exchange.  Strangely, once I had decided to make the move hitting the submit button was actually a little too easy.

Anyway, it was weird to move so much at once.  But it's a nice little exercise in risk tolerance.  I moved another $40K or so a few months later it wasn't as big a deal.

Of course at that time there didn't seem to be as much volatility.   But the reality is if it's going to be sitting there for a while, it'll probably all be fine.

All that said, I don't do any regular taxable investment contributions.  I max out my 401K throughout the year,

It is a bit unnerving to know with just a few clicks on the keyboard you can move a lotta cash!

I make out my retirement contributions now ($24,000/year) as well.  I could put more in my wife's IRA, but I'll need some of this invested money between now and when we can withdraw from the IRA.  In fact, we are only trying to safely bridge the gap between now and IRA withdrawal and then SS payments.  At that point we get a considerable "raise."

Thanks again.  Phew, now I need to work on something else...
« Last Edit: February 02, 2016, 01:13:44 PM by Rollin »

catccc

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Re: Nervous day for me - $27K added in to VG
« Reply #4 on: February 02, 2016, 08:50:56 PM »
I just realized I didn't finish my post, and just stopped mid-sentence.  It's not super relevant, but I'll wrap it up, anyway.


As I was saying, I max out the 401K, and then put in a savings account anything extra that can be saved.  Then at the start of the next year, I max out IRAs for that year.  Anything over the max for IRAs goes into the kids 529s.  I often wonder if I should be doing more regular taxable investments.  Probably not until the 529 are funded, I'm guessing...

Rollin

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Re: Nervous day for me - $27K added in to VG
« Reply #5 on: February 03, 2016, 06:24:42 AM »
I just realized I didn't finish my post, and just stopped mid-sentence.  It's not super relevant, but I'll wrap it up, anyway.


As I was saying, I max out the 401K, and then put in a savings account anything extra that can be saved.  Then at the start of the next year, I max out IRAs for that year.  Anything over the max for IRAs goes into the kids 529s.  I often wonder if I should be doing more regular taxable investments.  Probably not until the 529 are funded, I'm guessing...

Ah, I see that what I first thought was a period is a comma!

I know for me I don't want to tie up too much cash in our IRA so I go with a considerable taxable investment.  However, that plan works for me, as I said earlier I need some of that to bridge from 8/2016 to about 2020/2021.