This question and variations of it have been spammed to no end on this sub in the past few days. In case you're wondering what you should be doing investment wise, here's the latest news and what it means for you.
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The S&P500 is down about 6% YTD. This may scare some users who were used to the recent bull market where it was up 20 to 30%, but keep in mind that this is nowhere near the historical crashes that we've seen before (2008 was -30% at it's lowest).
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VBMFX (Vanguard Total Bond Market Index) is down almost 2% YTD.
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VGTSX (Vanguard Total International Stock Index) is down 10% YTD.
So what does this mean for you? Here's my take: if you have moderate to high risk tolerance then stay the course! Remember, if you stick with a buy and hold strategy, you ride the wave of the recovery. Based on history, it always recovers. Eventually. If you have a low risk profile, I do suggest looking to temper your allocation with bonds. The "your age minus 10 in bonds" rule works well for me, but do whatever makes you sleep well at night. But whatever you end up doing...don't panic sell. As soon as you sell shares, that becomes what we call a "realized loss". You haven't actually "lost" money yet, just share value, which will inevitably recover.
Submitted December 19, 2018 at 06:19PM by thatonecoolkid99 https://ift.tt/2Si8OB6
