It's not looking good for us guys that are ready to retire...
yep, that's the tough spot. the people that are about to retire and watching their investments plunge. sure all the value will come back by staying in (not selling and locking in those losses)...but it might take a few years.
last year i was happy with my return in my 401k and i rebalanced heavily in bonds, missed on some earnings since but all that has been retracted now. waiting for the bottom and then everything back into the aggressive funds...probably bump my contributions up significantly too.
I just got done moving some things around,hopefully for the better...This virus scare reminds me of the show on tv a while back..."The last ship" Where is the USS Nathan James?
The term 'scare' seems to be the operative word. I know a couple of MD's and they indicate that this is WAY overblown. Just the fact that the number of people that are infected with common flu and have died from it versus the number with this latest virus..not even close. For that matter, it is estimated that 280K+ die in the US EVERY YEAR from obesity. So, order up those Whoppers for lunch.
the reason the markets are falling is not because of how deadly the virus is, but because it is so contagious and it is spreading all over the world and completely disrupting normalities. spending is going to retract (businesses worldwide have already stopped flying people for events), people are going cancel vacations, people won't want to fly, they will quit going out as much...consumer spending is going to drop. also, china was basically idle for what? a few months? production worldwide is going to fall, this could be a worldwide recession.
