Market drop- correction or beginning of it?

[Lowdown3]

Dow down about 1,000 from recent high. Is this the long overdue correction and if so what point are you buying in at?

Or, is it the start of economic SHTF?

I'm hoping it's a buying opportunity! A lot of the REITs I bought a few years ago are up considerably and have been returning 8-12% yearly as well. I'm taking profits on some of them and cutting down my collection of REITs. Many of the MLPs that have to do with refining and pushing that I bought in the last six months are also up considerably, but I have only sold a few of those.

PM mining stocks like AUMN and ASM are near 52 week lows, that may be the next buying opportunity. ASM topped over $3. in the not so recent past, just about six months or so after bottoming at $.71 cents a share.

Your thoughts?

[Lowdown3]

The above was posted Sunday, before the big drop today. At one point the Dow was off 1,600 points and finished almost 1,200 down total.

If I had to guess, I'd say the down run will continue to at least 22,000

Be some good buying opportunities here and there.

[Lowdown3]

So IF this was the start of IT, what would you need to do?

[rockriver]

assuming the ultimate crash -
1. salvage what you can as fast as you can
cash out stocks, bonds, annuities, 401's 403's retirements as fast as you can.

contact my closest associates and make plans... they don't get a long conversation.
repeating info at most twice... at first hint of attitude or refusal to believe response is.
"i sure hope you are right! see ya. bye. "
2. use the cash to get what you need. beans, bullets, medical, housing, fuel.
3. change remainder to trade items and store of wealth.



i've been camping. off internet and tv. i assume nothing is significant and haven't headed home or backup location.
raining and campers shut things down early for the night.

[wwdnet]

I checked my 401K today and it's up from last month. Husband checked his and it's down $10K. Difference? My money is all in the low-risk 'guaranteed' fund and his is in a mixed portfolio. He's freaking... I suggested he move half to the guaranteed fund for now and try to ride out the roller coaster ride with the other half. He can move it at will, so there's no risk to speak of. He wants to pull enough to pay off the mortgage but this may not be the best time for that. Waiting until he retires would reduce the tax burden on a withdrawal, since his income would be substantially less. I suggested taking out a loan against the 401K to pay off the mortgage, which will effectively protect that amount and end up with him paying himself back with interest.

I'm not a market dabbler, so I just keep an eye on my 401K and let him lose $$ hedging bets.

[Lowdown3]

A lot of 401Ks limit your investment options. Our 529 plan is like that. Four options: Aggressive growth (based on age), Growth (based on age), a "Balanced" fund which includes some bonds, and a "guaranteed" option which only pays about 2-3% right now.

As he got older I have kept re balancing the account, moving more and more into the "guaranteed" option as he nears college age. When I got the statement the first of the year I re balanced to 80% guaranteed, 10% balanced and 10% "growth." The market was getting new highs daily at the time, so I guess it was a good time to do it.

I understand a lot of 401Ks are similar to this- a small choice of options. Moving more and more into "safer" options as retirement nears is probably the best bet.

[protus]

Like already posted. Both my 401s are in low risk options. Mostly by choice.
I don't play with them. Its invisible money as I call it. I let them grow.
I know during 8-12' when every prepper was screaming " mah four O 1 ....ugggg"
Mine was producing. So I left it alone.
I've been told to roll over the two into one. Which I may do down the round.

[Lowdown3]

Some of the oil MLPs in intraday trading were down almost $2. a share on stocks selling under $20. each.

So a 10% or better profit could have been gained in relatively little time. Or someone looking for 10% or more distributions could have gotten a bargain on price of these stocks. The oil market has it's own volatility as well.

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

Once I get a few thousand $ into my company matched 401k, I will pull it out and transfer into a self-directed IRA (SDIRAs). It has allowed me to purchase precious metals and I store in my safe or safety deposit box that I have a key to. A lot of PM companies that do SDIRAs have you store them in a "depository" that you cannot see or touch YOUR PMs. I had a company like that a few years ago and got rid of them for a different company. SDIRAs allow you many options like purchasing rental properties that you can make 10%-12% Net returns.

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

also, remember when you hear about the stock market drops that the MSM usually says "the largest point drop happened today". That may be true, but that doesn't tell the whole story. Looks at the % drop (which the MSM won't say). A 1400 point drop is only about a 5.6% drop when the DOW is at 25,000. Those big drops aren't even triggering the safety checks that are built into the market.

[wwdnet]

Most have plans based on your projected retirement year, so my husband is invested in the 2020 fund. I'm already retired and moved all of my 401K to the guaranteed fund when I was about 7 years out, having lost my shirt during the housing debacle. I don't make a lot, but I don't lose...