How's that retirement penson going?

[GeoffH]

1 hour ago, Mike J said:

I read that stocks in Brazil were off over 40%. 

Not too bad... normally much hairier than that and more than 40% loss with a... 'brazilian cut' 

 

Edited May 23, 2020 by GeoffH

[OnMyWay]

On 3/25/2020 at 8:45 AM, earthdome said:

My house sold and the closing was today. Just under the wire. Tomorrow at 8AM the city/county where I live is going into lockdown. It was supposed to close yesterday but the woman buying it for cash is a foreign international from china and the bank wouldn't release the funds. I was worried that we wouldn't reach close but she worked it out with her bank last night. That was close, I didn't want to get stuck holding on to it during all this economic turmoil. She came back after the inspection last week wanting a discount because of "problems" found during the inspection. She didn't ask for much so we just went with it instead of negotiating because the most important thing from my perspective was to get the sale closed.

 

On 3/26/2020 at 9:50 AM, OnMyWay said:

Looks like I will be stuck with an empty house for at least a few months, until this gets resolved in Florida.  Terrible timing on my part.  I asked my realtor a few days ago, and he said their are still buyers and sellers, but definitely slower.  I'm sure I will have to accept a lower price for the house.

Knock on wood, maybe the S. Florida housing market is still strong.  I got two offers yesterday, one for full price.  Knock on wood again.  I don't want to count my chickens before they are hatched, but at least I know there are buyers out there.  Both offers are with FHA backed loans and they only have to put 3.5% down, so it is a good market for first time buyers.

There were several showings the first week or two, but someone pointed out some dampness on the rear wall after a hard rain.  My realtor inspected a bit more and then sent me some pictures.  Water might have leaked around the windows and possibly even through the plaster, which is 22 years old.  He arranged someone to fix it and just as that work was finished, the garage door stopped opening.  After one vendor tried to scam us, I had another fix the springs and put in a new opener.  So during this time my realtor was not encouraging showings.

So that work finished Tuesday and there were more showings.  3 more scheduled for Saturday.  Wish me luck!

[jimeve]

9 hours ago, GeoffH said:

Not too bad... normally much hairier than that and more than 40% loss with a... 'brazilian cut' 

 

Heard this from an ex president of USA.... He asked how much is a Brazilian

[stevewool]

Well it taken this long to claw back the losses from my stocks that happened in March , onwards and upwards .

[Old55]

Things are looking up for us as well Steve.

[earthdome]

For me the quick robust stock market recovery was unexpected. Especially since there are no underlying fundamentals to support it, The market recovery is primarily due to the US Federal Reserve printing massive amounts of cash and buying up things to support market prices at unprecedented levels which then feeds the optimism of retail investors to jump on the bandwagon to further pump up stock prices. Mostly those of tech companies. The S&P 500 new highs are primarily driven by the 5 top tech companies with the remaining 495 stocks still with a substantial loss.

I also am back at where I was 6 months ago but at the most I was only down 6-7%. Currently my portfolio is still 75% cash with the remainder in a bunch of small investments including gold, silver, mining and crypto currency ETF's.

I have a conference call with my financial advisor later this week. It will be interesting to hear what they have to say about the current markets.

[Joey G]

15 minutes ago, earthdome said:

 The S&P 500 new highs are primarily driven by the 5 top tech companies with the remaining 495 stocks still with a substantial loss.

 

Sorry... but if someone told you that... they are so wrong... 495 of the 500 are NOT down.... not even close. Don't want to argue... but that's totally inaccurate.

[OnMyWay]

8 hours ago, earthdome said:

The S&P 500 new highs are primarily driven by the 5 top tech companies with the remaining 495 stocks still with a substantial loss.

Have to agree with Joey.  Where did you get that stat?  You gave me a bit of a scare so I checked the top 25, 6 month chart, which starts on Feb. 26th, near the peak.  Probably 15-20 are above that peak and most are far above the trough in March.

BRK-B is a basket of companies.  They are almost back to their peak.

I was surprised to Disney so high!  Considered buying some after the pullback but I couldn't pull the trigger.  So many of their businesses are hurting but investors are betting on a big comeback from pent up demand.

I have some money to invest now but I think there will be another pullback.  It could be a big one if the election goes the wrong way.  I expect there is going to be a sell off before the election and then another rally after, dependent on the results.

[Kuya John]

16 hours ago, stevewool said:

Well it taken this long to claw back the losses from my stocks that happened in March , onwards and upwards .

Well done Steve, glad you eventually got back out the wood shed.

Did you manage to sell the yacht in the South of France ?

[stevewool]

32 minutes ago, Kuya John said:

Well done Steve, glad you eventually got back out the wood shed.

Did you manage to sell the yacht in the South of France ?

Thanks John, the yacht took ages to try to sell, so I part exchanged it for this, should be ok for trips around the lake.