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It’s fucked up for sure. Investing is akin to gambling in Vegas. Any one otherwise inconsequential detail could completely bankrupt you, and we’re expected to pin our elder years on this system.
Burn in fucking Hell Raegan.
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Submitted 3 months ago by Buttflapper@lemmy.world to mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world
Comments
dohpaz42@lemmy.world 3 months ago
darkdemize@sh.itjust.works 3 months ago
Sure, picking an individual stock is basically gambling, but investing in index funds is basically betting on the house. And the house always wins.*
*Unless Trump is running it at least.
tal@lemmy.today 3 months ago
A 401k isn’t mandatory. If you’ve got an issue with having a 401k, you don’t need to do so. I suspect, however, that you’ll be hard-pressed to find a route that will provide long-term returns as solid as regularly dropping funds into an index fund in a 401k.
TexMexBazooka@lemm.ee 3 months ago
Yeah, no, investing can’t be compared to gambling like that. Unless you’re picking stocks at absolute random, there are underlying market forces can be understood and used to make reliable investments.
OP made some shitty bets and is blaming the system
dohpaz42@lemmy.world 3 months ago
You can say the same things about sports betting.
HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 3 months ago
Not every sector has.
What is showing itself as a major weakness in retirement saving is that a lot of retirement account managers think that bonds are relatively safe when they really aren’t.
The Great Recession went bad because they miscalculated the risk of two unrelated mortgages going bad.
When Covid hit, the increase in interest rates devalued a lot of bonds, something that wasn’t seen since the 1980’s.
Most of the people here who are confused by your accounts’ performance probably have a mix of index funds tied to a basket of stocks.
greenshirtdenimjeans@sh.itjust.works 3 months ago
If the market is down then you just get to buy more at a discount. It should pay off in a few decades
phoneymouse@lemmy.world 3 months ago
You got in at a bad time and probably picked some subpar investments. You likely bought some big tech stocks at the worst possible time, and many of them never recovered because they were way over valued to begin with.
Stick with total market or sp500 fund like VTI or VOO. You’d be up right now if you had.
Also, it sounds like you invested once and then never bought more? The whole point is that you’re buying more every paycheck. You’d be way up if you’d kept investing through 2022 when prices were low.
Poik@pawb.social 3 months ago
Target date funds are also supposed to be set and forget, but this looks like the curve from Vanguards 2030 through at least 2040 target date funds.
imposedsensation@lemmynsfw.com 3 months ago
What are the holdings and have you changed the allocations over time? Seems nearly impossible without major mistakes. Do you hold your own company’s stock? Mutual funds with high expense ratios? I’m very curious what’s going on here. It looks like something blew up in November 21 and never recovered. Were you holding lots of COVID technology plays like Peloton and Zoom Technologies?
Buttflapper@lemmy.world 3 months ago
[deleted]imposedsensation@lemmynsfw.com 3 months ago
Not possible. There’s no way, just look at the performance of those parts over the past 5 years. I’d go look at your statements. Seems off to me. What kind of healthcare? Biotech is very volatile but broad healthcare hasn’t collapsed either.
Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Your results don’t make sense. What are all the specific funds because the ones you listed didn’t lose money.
Poik@pawb.social 3 months ago
Yeah. Something doesn’t add up. The worst dip of what you mention is the blue chip large cap, but the curve you posted looks like VTINX or the vanguard 2030-2040 target date funds, not any of the funds you listed.
callouscomic@lemm.ee 3 months ago
Are you not adding to it steadily?
BakedCatboy@lemmy.ml 3 months ago
My retirement account has roughly doubled between Dec 2021 and now, I basically only invest in mutual funds and ETFs with a medium risk, low fees, and high return according to Morningstar ratings (I’m not sure how reliable those metrics are but it’s what shows up when browsing funds on fidelity and it seems to be picking good options so far)
SzethFriendOfNimi@lemmy.world 3 months ago
One thing to consider. When the stocks that are part of a mutual fund drop… then your retirement contributions will be buying them on sale.
Assuming the mutual funds are spread out to minimize risk (1 of the funds companies folds, etc) overall you’ll be better off long term.
As you age you’ll start moving your investments to more stable options. Ones that won’t benefit from huge gains but also won’t be wiped out by massive drops.
In the meantime look at how your funds are doing over time. Not even year to year but maybe every 2 or 3 years.
pineapplelover@lemm.ee 3 months ago
What you talking about man if you just follow nasdaq it could’ve been positive
feedum_sneedson@lemmy.world 3 months ago
I have no idea what anybody is talking about.
MonkRome@lemmy.world 3 months ago
If you don’t know what you are doing, and still young, just set a low cost broad market index fund or ETF as the place your retirement funds go. An example would be VTSAX or VTI.