We remember the story of Rip Van Winkle, a ne'er do well fellow living in upstate New York just before the Revolutionary War, who played ninepins with some mysterious ghostly characters. He accepted a drink from them, and promptly fell asleep for twenty years; when he finally awoke, the world had changed drastically.
Well, suppose you had a tiny sip of this same stuff, say, on New Year's Eve, and you fell asleep and didn't wake up until this morning (May 30). Knowing that 2008 had been a bad year for the stock market, you dread opening up your May investment statement, or looking at your 401k balance, but much to your relief, you are actually a little higher than you were on December 30, 2008. "Well" you think to yourself,"that little nap was no big deal because obviously nothing went on while I was snug in bed."
As the attached graph shows, you actually missed a significant amount of drama! If only we could all go to sleep while bad things happened - we'd be much less inclined to "do something!!!!" Simply waiting out this turn in the market while wide awake, however, was nerve-wracking. And this just got us back to where we were at the end of the year.
Continue to watch with interest and curiosity as we continue down this path - it's up to you to take a nap or stay awake on the way.
Well, suppose you had a tiny sip of this same stuff, say, on New Year's Eve, and you fell asleep and didn't wake up until this morning (May 30). Knowing that 2008 had been a bad year for the stock market, you dread opening up your May investment statement, or looking at your 401k balance, but much to your relief, you are actually a little higher than you were on December 30, 2008. "Well" you think to yourself,"that little nap was no big deal because obviously nothing went on while I was snug in bed."
As the attached graph shows, you actually missed a significant amount of drama! If only we could all go to sleep while bad things happened - we'd be much less inclined to "do something!!!!" Simply waiting out this turn in the market while wide awake, however, was nerve-wracking. And this just got us back to where we were at the end of the year.
Continue to watch with interest and curiosity as we continue down this path - it's up to you to take a nap or stay awake on the way.
