why is the stock market so important?

[CountAllVotes]

38. I had an IRA that was in the stock market for a few years

It made a lot of money for awhile. But, all of a sudden there was a crash coming.

I called the company up that was holding it and had it transferred to a CD paying 5.75%.

When the broker found out, boy was she ever pissed as she had lost a huge portion in that crash (this was around 2001) never to recover. She is now in her 70's and still working as a broker. You'd think if she was so smart she wouldn't be working any longer would she? lol!

The idea of losing money that I worked for with no guarantees on it was something that never appealed to me. My great grandfather was a the Deputy Treasurer for a well-known city in Calif. when the market exploded. He had died in May of 1929 and I suppose my grandfather who was a teamster had no idea what to do.

My Dad's family ended up with NO HOME and living in a shack. I heard the story about the crash of 1929 growing up. After my uncle died, stock certificates were found with his things and they were all of no value at all.

I never knew about those stock certificates until much later in my life. I'll tell you one thing, my father wouldn't go anywhere near Wall Street. I can see why, can't you?

I don't have much to live on any longer as I fell ill in the late 1990s and I am disabled. That said, I do not rely on government programs for assistance. I've managed on my own since I left home at the age of 17 and I worked full-time for many years and went to college at night and on the weekends.

I was self-directed from Day #1. There were no options for me, that was made very clear to me early on. No one was going to help me get through school so I worked and worked and worked until MS got me good.

I don't have much now as I'm getting old and the storms and earthquakes have done thousands of dollars of damage to where I live. I will recover however, yes I will.

Glad I'm not the only one that sees these brokers (they could not even spell my surname properly on their mail and on the investment itself). They call all 'eff right off! I seriously dislike these people. They are licensed crooks IMO.