Dear Friends and Family,
When we met with our financial adviser in January, we looked at our plans for the year and discussed and debated the strengths and weaknesses of investing vs. saving in today's economy. All logic says that now is a good time to buy. Buy low, sell high. Right?
To be honest, most of the debate was internal. Our adviser is more than happy to give information and advice, but to ultimately let us decide what's the right course of action for us.
I still think we're in for a rough ride. There will be more ups and downs before the market stabilizes. And, once it does, I think it'll be a slow steady climb, not a swift leap. And, last but not least, I don't believe I can time the market, so I don't really try to.
What that means for February, especially considering the swings in the past couple of weeks, is that I just made the adjustment to my February mortgage payment to continue to plug away at that. Sooner or later, that option will go away, but for now, I'm more than happy to park my cash there.
Liquidity? What happens if we need cash? Well, option A is the rainy day fund which should cover most basic random cash needs, after all that's what it's there for. Option B is the line of credit we have on the house which we keep open for a $50 maintenance fee a year. Option C is to sell some of our miserable under-performing stocks at a loss. Option D would be a list of more desperate options: credit card debt, refinancing the house, selling the house, renting the house, etc. We can only assume we'd get to D if things got really bad. Let's hope we never get there.
Cheers!
mouse
When we met with our financial adviser in January, we looked at our plans for the year and discussed and debated the strengths and weaknesses of investing vs. saving in today's economy. All logic says that now is a good time to buy. Buy low, sell high. Right?
To be honest, most of the debate was internal. Our adviser is more than happy to give information and advice, but to ultimately let us decide what's the right course of action for us.
I still think we're in for a rough ride. There will be more ups and downs before the market stabilizes. And, once it does, I think it'll be a slow steady climb, not a swift leap. And, last but not least, I don't believe I can time the market, so I don't really try to.
What that means for February, especially considering the swings in the past couple of weeks, is that I just made the adjustment to my February mortgage payment to continue to plug away at that. Sooner or later, that option will go away, but for now, I'm more than happy to park my cash there.
Liquidity? What happens if we need cash? Well, option A is the rainy day fund which should cover most basic random cash needs, after all that's what it's there for. Option B is the line of credit we have on the house which we keep open for a $50 maintenance fee a year. Option C is to sell some of our miserable under-performing stocks at a loss. Option D would be a list of more desperate options: credit card debt, refinancing the house, selling the house, renting the house, etc. We can only assume we'd get to D if things got really bad. Let's hope we never get there.
Cheers!
mouse
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