The Coming Trump Slump

[klook]

20. Better to maintain a mix of long- and short-term investments, imho

and - more importantly - in the opinion of many investment gurus.

Of course, generalized advice is worth the pixels it's written on. Your approach has to take into account your age, your health, your debt load, other obligations, your risk tolerance, and many other factors.

In my case, I have a few years' worth of funds in very stable investments that don't respond much to market fluctuations in either direction, some in funds that have a little growth potential but only moderate risk, and some other stuff that's riskier and won't be touched for many years if ever.

Just my 2 cents' worth, but I've had to train myself to resist the temptation to time the market. That was incredibly hard when the Bush Depression hit, because I had most of my retirement accounts in stock-based funds at that point. If I'd moved that money into safe investments at that time and realized those losses, I'd be in a world of hurt now.

I didn't look at my account balances at all for a few years, hoping the wisdom of long-term buy-and-hold advocates would manifest in a market rebound. Then when the Obama Recovery took hold, the ship was righted and the future looked brighter. I gradually moved some funds into safer options and finally got some advice from a professional, fee-only investment advisor.

Anyway, if you've read this far -- it sounds like your choices are probably wise. Not knowing anything about your personal situation, I'm just giving you my unsolicited pontification. I do think we have a horrible economic downturn coming, thanks to Trump and the insane Republican scheme to steal from the 99 percent. And we all need to plan accordingly for how to get through these years.