jump to navigation

Sell Stocks in May and Go Away? April 30, 2007

Posted by pf in Expenses and Savings, Goals, Portfolio Allocation.
8 comments

About a week ago, I wrote a post entitled “Stock Market Timing: Resisting the Urge” where I expressed some inclination to lock up some the solid gains we have experienced during recent months in anticipation of some more volatility and downside in the months to come.

Interestingly, just today I read an article from CNN Money entitled “Sell in May and Walk Away? Not So Fast” that really got me to thinking about whether or not I should go ahead and act on my intuition.   Fortunately, because of the timing, there were a number of articles on the same topic from various sources.  As you might expect, the advice ran the spectrum from giving credence to the effect and how to take advantage while others considered it “nonsense”. 

(more…)

Net Worth: How Am I Doing? April 25, 2007

Posted by pf in Expenses and Savings, Goals, Net Worth Update.
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
60 comments

Over the last couple of months, I have spent time trying to figure out my long term goals and how to best position myself to meet those goals. What I have not really done is considered how much progress I’ve made thus far and compared it to some sort of benchmark. While I know where I’m trying to go and how far I’ve gotten, I don’t really have a good sense for whether that means I’m on track or lagging.

So, I thought I would do a bit of research to find something I could use to create a point of comparison. I suspect I’ll find more than one tool, so I’ll consider using several of them to get a reasonable sense for where I am and how I compare.

(more…)

Stock Market Timing…Resisting the Urge April 24, 2007

Posted by pf in Expenses and Savings.
9 comments

It has been written over and over that trying to time the market is a fool’s game that almost everyone loses. However, I have been getting this weird sense that we are at one of those peaks and we are in store for one of those “summer swoons”.

I try to tell myself (talking to himself – not a good sign) that I should just “stay the course” as I have been for many years (and have generally been rewarded for doing so).  At the same time, there is another voice (oh, he’s hearing voices now – really not good) that is telling me to follow my intuition and reduce my exposure in some of my more volatile investments (example: emerging markets) for something a bit less so (ex: capital appreciation).

(more…)