I've lost 30%

[RazzleCat]

41. I just did the math, I am down 23% but

I have also withdrawn funds, so more like 20%. My investment advisor has always told me that at some point I have to be emotionally prepared to expect to loose up to 50% at any given time and to be financially prepared to ride out that sort of loss. So I am financially prepared to pare my self down if I should loose so much.

Unlike some other posters I am retired, so that the losses are very scary as this is what I have planed to live on for the rest of my life, but again I have been told over and over to be set to take a huge loss at any given time, and budget myself to live on just my retirement/Social Security monies if I have to. I can mostly do so, but they do not cover any extras including unexpected expenses such a major home repairs etc.

Another poster commented on the increased value of there home, and I do not consider it an asset, it is not liquid and if you sell it you still need to purchase another one, so even if downsizing the realized gains are not the entire value of you home just a percentage of if. So I sell my home for 550K, go to downsize I will need to spend around 330K then add in moving costs, agent fee's etc. and the profit is not that much. Remember if your home is rising in value so are all the homes you may move to, excluding leaving a HCL area for a less expensive location.

With all that rambled off, I don't blame the current administration, its just the way the market is. If you put money in over the long term you will realize a profit, but you need to accept downturns and keep the ability to just ride them out with out the need to sell when they happen. To those who are going to say use bonds and annuities, they are valid, but they don't keep up with inflation. If I have a bond returning say 5% its loosing vs our current inflation, so I am invested in mostly blue chip dividend stocks at this time. Current annual dividend amount anticipated earnings are 40K a year.