Author Topic: Help me not be crazy with VTI  (Read 5624 times)

Zman

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Help me not be crazy with VTI
« on: April 27, 2015, 08:31:31 AM »
Hi Guys, Ive got a Roth IRA and am putting money into only VTI for it. I have available funds sitting in the account but am afraid to buy shares at $110.25 (as of posting). This seems high and I keep telling myself I should wait for  a drop.

Now I know I should just put it in as soon as possible, but there has to be a dip coming, right? right?

What to do
?

Runge

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Re: Help me not be crazy with VTI
« Reply #1 on: April 27, 2015, 08:34:16 AM »
Click buy and forget about trying to time the market. Next time you put money in your roth, click buy again. Rinse and repeat until you are FIRE.

ac

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Re: Help me not be crazy with VTI
« Reply #2 on: April 27, 2015, 08:38:11 AM »
I feel better about spreading my funds beyond just the US (VTI)

So I put some funds in VXUS (everything excluding US)

And also a little in BND (US bonds)

Might make you feel better too

matchewed

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Re: Help me not be crazy with VTI
« Reply #3 on: April 27, 2015, 08:55:15 AM »
If you are afraid of dips then you should not be investing at all in something that dips, that or get over it. I'd lean towards the latter. Ways to mitigate this, a more conservative asset allocation which reduces the impact of dips; something tells me that if you're afraid to invest then your asset allocation is too aggressive for you to stomach.

So buy some bonds or something...

Also you're seeing the first picture right now -

The circle is that high you're talking about.

But the rest of your investing life looks like the second picture -

Which black circle are you on right now?

Static Void

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Re: Help me not be crazy with VTI
« Reply #4 on: April 27, 2015, 09:00:27 AM »
Something I read somewhere on this forum board helped me resolve that feeling somewhat. It was words to the effect of,

"When the market is behaving correctly, doing just what we'd like it to do, it's always going up and therefore always at an all time high."


Zman

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Re: Help me not be crazy with VTI
« Reply #5 on: April 27, 2015, 09:27:14 AM »
If you are afraid of dips then you should not be investing at all in something that dips, that or get over it. I'd lean towards the latter. Ways to mitigate this, a more conservative asset allocation which reduces the impact of dips; something tells me that if you're afraid to invest then your asset allocation is too aggressive for you to stomach.

So buy some bonds or something...

Also you're seeing the first picture right now -

The circle is that high you're talking about.

But the rest of your investing life looks like the second picture -

Which black circle are you on right now?

Not afraid of dips, just want to eek out every penny.. but your post and the others helped me just "pull the trigger"

But especially you calling me afraid, because that brought out my machismo! Ha! So i made the trade:
Executed price    $109.9999
Thanks to my reluctance I scored a free 25 cent / share :-)     


(............ and yes I rushed to submit the trade as the price was climbing back up to the $110 mark and was really excited to see I snuck in below it)

matchewed

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Re: Help me not be crazy with VTI
« Reply #6 on: April 27, 2015, 09:31:50 AM »
If you are afraid of dips then you should not be investing at all in something that dips, that or get over it. I'd lean towards the latter. Ways to mitigate this, a more conservative asset allocation which reduces the impact of dips; something tells me that if you're afraid to invest then your asset allocation is too aggressive for you to stomach.

So buy some bonds or something...

Also you're seeing the first picture right now -

The circle is that high you're talking about.

But the rest of your investing life looks like the second picture -

Which black circle are you on right now?

Not afraid of dips, just want to eek out every penny.. but your post and the others helped me just "pull the trigger"

But especially you calling me afraid, because that brought out my machismo! Ha! So i made the trade:
Executed price    $109.9999
Thanks to my reluctance I scored a free 25 cent / share :-)     


(............ and yes I rushed to submit the trade as the price was climbing back up to the $110 mark and was really excited to see I snuck in below it)

Um... bolded for emphasis...
Hi Guys, Ive got a Roth IRA and am putting money into only VTI for it. I have available funds sitting in the account but am afraid to buy shares at $110.25 (as of posting). This seems high and I keep telling myself I should wait for  a drop.

Now I know I should just put it in as soon as possible, but there has to be a dip coming, right? right?

What to do
?

Frankly there will always be a dip coming somewhen. Get used to it.

Cecil

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Re: Help me not be crazy with VTI
« Reply #7 on: April 27, 2015, 09:53:21 AM »
People were saying that VTI was too high at $75, $80, $90, and $100 as well. Forum threads here from early 2013 are full of people saying that a correction must be just around the corner.

And people will still be saying that it's too high at $120, $150, and $200. And $500.

$110/share is crazy cheap compared to what it will be in 2040.

ingrownstudentloans

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Re: Help me not be crazy with VTI
« Reply #8 on: April 27, 2015, 10:06:32 AM »
I will never forget that I told a high school buddy in, I think, 2004 or 05 that Apple was too high at $80/share and that there was no way it was going higher...just helps to solidify the buy and hold index fund strategy for me. Glad you pulled the trigger.

forummm

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Re: Help me not be crazy with VTI
« Reply #9 on: April 27, 2015, 10:17:19 AM »
I'm going to butcher the stats a bit, but I don't think there's any time (or maybe 1 time) in history where the S&P500 hasn't been higher after 10 years (ignoring dividends, so you still get a return anyway). And the market spends something like 30% of the time at or within 5% of an all-time high.

Static Void

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Re: Help me not be crazy with VTI
« Reply #10 on: April 27, 2015, 09:07:21 PM »
I will never forget that I told a high school buddy in, I think, 2004 or 05 that Apple was too high at $80/share and that there was no way it was going higher...just helps to solidify the buy and hold index fund strategy for me. Glad you pulled the trigger.

I sold at 65 or so. Yup.

Zman

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Re: Help me not be crazy with VTI
« Reply #11 on: April 28, 2015, 08:34:20 AM »
Update: bought more at under 109 today... I think its wise to keep eyes out for opportunities like this. I wanted to place the order yesterday afternoon but for some reason the ask was $111 (despite a closing price of $109 something). Luckily I waited until this morning and saved some money.

Weird that the ask price was so high, is that common for after hours?

matchewed

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Re: Help me not be crazy with VTI
« Reply #12 on: April 28, 2015, 08:36:09 AM »
Update: bought more at under 109 today... I think its wise to keep eyes out for opportunities like this. I wanted to place the order yesterday afternoon but for some reason the ask was $111 (despite a closing price of $109 something). Luckily I waited until this morning and saved some money.

Weird that the ask price was so high, is that common for after hours?

It is wiser to ignore what the price is and keep buying.

Wolf359

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Re: Help me not be crazy with VTI
« Reply #13 on: April 28, 2015, 09:46:44 AM »
I'm going to butcher the stats a bit, but I don't think there's any time (or maybe 1 time) in history where the S&P500 hasn't been higher after 10 years (ignoring dividends, so you still get a return anyway). And the market spends something like 30% of the time at or within 5% of an all-time high.
2000-2010 is considered a lost decade for S&P 500 stocks. 
Japan has had two lost decades in a row.  (There's nothing magical about the S&P 500 index that prevents it from happening to that index as well.

The solution is to diversify.  If you have total stock market, total bond market, and total international stock market, you're not locked to a single index.

Diversification is how you address the potential of dips when you start from the assumption that you can't time the market.