When DH and I graduated in 2000 many of our friends couldn't find jobs with the tech bubble burst. We had many friends just grabbing anything because engineering jobs weren't happening and just jobs in general were going by the wayside. The money we had invested in stocks $5k tanked and I think I had $1500 in my Roth IRA by 2002 when we bought our first house.
That house we sold in 2005 and bought another and then we had to ride out that bubble bursting until maybe 2013? It didn't drop really and we put down 20% so we could get out at any time but it might have been breakeven with selling fees. BUT most of our friends in Southern California either foreclosed or went underwater for years. I can't tell you how many walked away in 2008. Many put nothing down as well.
In 2008 I was looking back to at our NW tracker DH's 401k started in 2007 at $9300 and ended at $24k after maxing out and a match. That means he lost money around I believe 10%? Maybe more. All I know is that I saw our contributions being less than what we ended the year at for 2006-2008. And even now we are contributing even with the possibility of losing a big chunk of our money.
I guess I figure a lot of our money we don't plan on "retiring" even if it's not in retirement accounts for another 10 years so we'll gamble. Of course this year we've ended better than ever. I feel though I'm only in my 30s that i've experienced quite a bit and swallowed hard learning these lessons.
So I can say I won't turn away from the markets or housing. Did you?
Submitted January 12, 2017 at 04:46AM by dennisrieves http://ift.tt/2jH566J
