Author Topic: Weirdly feeling wealthier  (Read 4853 times)

aceyou

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Weirdly feeling wealthier
« on: February 06, 2018, 12:06:55 PM »
Losing $18,000 in the past few days from the stache weirdly makes me feel wealthier than I did a week ago. 

What a privilege it is that an 18k hit makes no difference whatsoever in my day to day life, and that I have a large enough stache where a few losing days could create such a dip.  Hoping I lose at least another 20k before the correction is over so the stock sale gets even better. 

And I'm thankful for the MMM and JLCollins site to prepare me emotionally for small dips like this. 

CorpRaider

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Re: Weirdly feeling wealthier
« Reply #1 on: February 06, 2018, 12:26:49 PM »
Nice outlook.  I'm trying to mentally prepare for the year when my balance goes down despite contributions.  I think that will be a little discouraging unless I'm already FI (i.e., if I'm working all year and saving like crazy and still make zero progress or lose ground).
« Last Edit: February 06, 2018, 12:31:38 PM by CorpRaider »

bluebelle

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Re: Weirdly feeling wealthier
« Reply #2 on: February 06, 2018, 12:29:43 PM »
interesting way to look at it.....you're certainly looking at it from an 'attitude of gratitude', which is a wonderful way to frame things.  If you had reasonable investments with good asset allocations, it'll come back....

What I'm trying to remind myself:  even with the dip, my real return (excluding contributions) is over 7% for the year.  My I use 4% in my extrapolations (I'm only 2 years away from FIRE), so anything over 4% is all good. 

don't be this person:
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/xiv-trader-ive-lost-4-million-3-years-of-work-and-other-peoples-money-2018-02-06

alanB

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Re: Weirdly feeling wealthier
« Reply #3 on: February 06, 2018, 12:39:35 PM »
Similar dip, similar feeling.  I was happy when I was poor, and I am even happier now.  If I become poor later I will go back to being regular happy I guess.

For most people building wealth, the most valuable thing they own is their future earning potential.  What if the market put a price on your future earnings?  Would you get depressed at every dip?

There was a quote from Warren Buffett, I think in The Snowball, where he makes the point that you don't follow the market value of your house every day and start worrying if it falls.  I guess you could do that now with Zillow though...

JAYSLOL

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Re: Weirdly feeling wealthier
« Reply #4 on: February 06, 2018, 01:14:41 PM »
Losing $18,000 in the past few days from the stache weirdly makes me feel wealthier than I did a week ago. 

What a privilege it is that an 18k hit makes no difference whatsoever in my day to day life, and that I have a large enough stache where a few losing days could create such a dip.  Hoping I lose at least another 20k before the correction is over so the stock sale gets even better. 

And I'm thankful for the MMM and JLCollins site to prepare me emotionally for small dips like this.

Congrats.  Perhaps even more weirdly I feel a little less wealthy, not because of what I've "lost", but because of how much I haven't lost, lol.  I'm only down like $2500, everyone here seems to be down 10s or 100s of thousands.  #juniormustachianproblems

2Birds1Stone

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Re: Weirdly feeling wealthier
« Reply #5 on: February 06, 2018, 01:28:29 PM »
You are wealthy!

Imagine how it will feel when you lose $100k in a few days!

Bicycle_B

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Re: Weirdly feeling wealthier
« Reply #6 on: February 06, 2018, 03:35:15 PM »
Good approach, Aceyou!  I'm agnostic on further dips, but otherwise agree strongly. 

aceyou

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Re: Weirdly feeling wealthier
« Reply #7 on: February 06, 2018, 04:20:36 PM »
interesting way to look at it.....you're certainly looking at it from an 'attitude of gratitude', which is a wonderful way to frame things.  If you had reasonable investments with good asset allocations, it'll come back....

What I'm trying to remind myself:  even with the dip, my real return (excluding contributions) is over 7% for the year.  My I use 4% in my extrapolations (I'm only 2 years away from FIRE), so anything over 4% is all good. 

don't be this person:
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/xiv-trader-ive-lost-4-million-3-years-of-work-and-other-peoples-money-2018-02-06

Yikes, that guy can kiss sleep goodbye for a while. 

I'm 13ish years from when I plan to FIRE, so I'm 100% VTSAX right now.  With the market rally at the end of the day I'm not down anywhere near 18k anymore.  I was hoping to have an opportunity to see how much it could drop and I still maintain complete emotional indifference.  Here's hoping for tomorrow. 

effigy98

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Re: Weirdly feeling wealthier
« Reply #8 on: February 06, 2018, 05:17:21 PM »
I am worried that this market is not allowing me to grow my stache fast enough. I want it to crash, burn, and bleed in my peak earning years. Huge drops just make me feel grateful I can point the fire hose of cash towards it and invest and in the long run will make me much wealthier in FIRE.

Sarah Saverdink

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Re: Weirdly feeling wealthier
« Reply #9 on: February 06, 2018, 05:25:52 PM »
We're in a similar position. These are our prime investing years! I've been waiting for a dip :)

TheAnonOne

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Re: Weirdly feeling wealthier
« Reply #10 on: February 08, 2018, 11:19:20 AM »
After today I will be down around 24k

I can say with 100% honesty that I don't feel bad in the slightest. 0 negative feelings.

To a degree I agree with OP, to have even $1,000 loss to some people would be life changing, devastating, possibly causing some to lose some major possessions. People missing 1 paycheck can ruin their lives, yet 24k lost is a non-event.

Grateful is maybe a strong word, while it is good to have perspective, sympathy and empathy, we have worked for it, planned for it, and even expect things MUCH WORSE THAN THIS to happen!

2Birds1Stone

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Re: Weirdly feeling wealthier
« Reply #11 on: February 08, 2018, 03:07:27 PM »
For someone who just retired, it might be a bit gut wrenching to think how low we can go, and what the recovery will look like "this time".

Ocinfo

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Re: Weirdly feeling wealthier
« Reply #12 on: February 08, 2018, 03:39:13 PM »
Down about $50k and not very bothered. Part of it is that this feels like a haircut that is past-due. I might feel different if this starts to look more like a bear market and not a simple correction. That being said, I have 2-4 years of high earnings before downshifting to PT work so a sideways or down market is a good thing for me.


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ChpBstrd

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Re: Weirdly feeling wealthier
« Reply #13 on: February 08, 2018, 04:20:00 PM »
Down roughly $33k or 4.9% of my portfolio from the peak. Several thousand of that paper loss is imaginary due to extremely wide bid-ask spreads and the tendency of software to quote value at exactly the ask price. Meh... I was fine back in December at the same portfolio value, but now I own more shares!

I've taken advantage of the increased volatility by selling covered calls for inflated prices. Hopefully those proceeds can be used to buy a couple of free souvenir shares.

JustGettingStarted1980

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Re: Weirdly feeling wealthier
« Reply #14 on: February 08, 2018, 04:44:33 PM »
Really like this thread... not counting my exact dip amount but also not all that worried about it. I have around 6-7 more years to go, after all.

daverobev

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Re: Weirdly feeling wealthier
« Reply #15 on: February 08, 2018, 06:24:22 PM »
I keep a monthly asset/net worth spreadsheet. I have a separate tab with a table of net worth per month.

As of now my NW has fallen all the way back to where it was some time in October. Hmm.

aceyou

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Re: Weirdly feeling wealthier
« Reply #16 on: February 08, 2018, 07:06:29 PM »
For someone who just retired, it might be a bit gut wrenching to think how low we can go, and what the recovery will look like "this time".

Right.  You definitely wouldn't be rooting for a stock sale when you are the one selling.  It would take another level of maturity for me to be able to handle something like that with the same indifference. 

retireatbirth

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Re: Weirdly feeling wealthier
« Reply #17 on: February 08, 2018, 08:15:14 PM »
For someone who just retired, it might be a bit gut wrenching to think how low we can go, and what the recovery will look like "this time".

Right.  You definitely wouldn't be rooting for a stock sale when you are the one selling.  It would take another level of maturity for me to be able to handle something like that with the same indifference.

Yeah, but if you had a year in cash and just withdrew month by month in year two, you could survive pretty much anything with limited impact.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!