plane2port
Level 2 Member
I have not been following through on my carefully thought-out portfolio plan. Please pick one of the following 3 choices.
1. Give me a swift kick in the behind.
2. Shame me into taking action.
3. Tell me again why I should not be trying to time the market.
Many of you may recognize me as someone who is fairly active on the manufacturing spend thread. That is where the fun is, and frankly I would rather be over there discussing the value of a hard pull or churning credit cards. Travel and how to travel cheaply is my hobby. But to enjoy carefree travel, the financial house must be in order, and this is where I've been spending a lot of time lately.
I've had my IRA at Vanguard since I rolled it out of my 403b when I retired. I had a play money account that I moved in and out of Fidelity for the miles, and a small account at Tradeking that I used to dabble in options. I've always loved the stock market and bought stocks based on payout ratios, P/E's, etc. But over the past few years, I've realized that stock trading is a fool's game, and that indexing was really the way to go.
As you all know, Saverocity has some great forums, and I found this one on investing. It was here that some folks recommended bogleheads dot org for investors that like simple straightforward investing in index funds and ETFs. I saw a link to a wiki called Lazy Portfolios. (This sounded like my kind of investment already.) I was attracted to the 3-fund portfolio, which consisted of a total stock market fund, a total bond fund, and a REIT. I had it all figured out. I was going to use the bond fund and REIT in my IRA and put the taxable funds into the Total Stock Market. I sold some investments, moved all my funds to Vanguard, and prepared to move the money into the three funds (actually the plan is to buy the ETF versions of those funds.)
And I can't make myself make the purchases. Why? Because the market is so damn high right now! I know that I am being ridiculous. The market may go down 40% or this may be the lowest it will ever be. Who knows? I know I should get my money in there, stop worrying, and go travel.
So please, please pick option 1,2, 3 above and show no mercy.
1. Give me a swift kick in the behind.
2. Shame me into taking action.
3. Tell me again why I should not be trying to time the market.
Many of you may recognize me as someone who is fairly active on the manufacturing spend thread. That is where the fun is, and frankly I would rather be over there discussing the value of a hard pull or churning credit cards. Travel and how to travel cheaply is my hobby. But to enjoy carefree travel, the financial house must be in order, and this is where I've been spending a lot of time lately.
I've had my IRA at Vanguard since I rolled it out of my 403b when I retired. I had a play money account that I moved in and out of Fidelity for the miles, and a small account at Tradeking that I used to dabble in options. I've always loved the stock market and bought stocks based on payout ratios, P/E's, etc. But over the past few years, I've realized that stock trading is a fool's game, and that indexing was really the way to go.
As you all know, Saverocity has some great forums, and I found this one on investing. It was here that some folks recommended bogleheads dot org for investors that like simple straightforward investing in index funds and ETFs. I saw a link to a wiki called Lazy Portfolios. (This sounded like my kind of investment already.) I was attracted to the 3-fund portfolio, which consisted of a total stock market fund, a total bond fund, and a REIT. I had it all figured out. I was going to use the bond fund and REIT in my IRA and put the taxable funds into the Total Stock Market. I sold some investments, moved all my funds to Vanguard, and prepared to move the money into the three funds (actually the plan is to buy the ETF versions of those funds.)
And I can't make myself make the purchases. Why? Because the market is so damn high right now! I know that I am being ridiculous. The market may go down 40% or this may be the lowest it will ever be. Who knows? I know I should get my money in there, stop worrying, and go travel.
So please, please pick option 1,2, 3 above and show no mercy.