Larry the Legend wrote:
So you just about made up your losses after the big crash then. What would I recommend? Well, I'm not a licensed investment advisor, you understand, but mine's all in silver and bitcoin. I bought the silver at $3 an ounce and the bitcoin was $10 apiece, I think... Of course, it's been a while but it just keeps on keeping on. I'm just sitting back, waiting for the final fiat dollar crash and we get back to some kind of honest money. I really think this might be the one.
No ,no .no. When I said I have almost quadrupled my money I am including my losses in the big crash. I took the figure from the pre crash 2007 and calculated from there. I really have almost, but not quite quadrupled my money. By 2009 I had lost almost half of my money, but by 2011, I was even and it has been all gravy on the way up since then. I am so glad I listened to my own instincts instead of the gloom and doom naysayers.
As I previously said, if you predict a crash every day, sooner or later you will be right, but not today. The Dow was up 331 today. I consider money that I did not make as money I lost. I will tell you this, over the years I have lost far more money acting on a crash that never happened, than I ever lost in a real crash. Many times in years past I felt like the market was way way too high and had to crash and burn, so I jumped out. Then it just kept going higher. I had to get back in at a higher level. The only crash I correctly called and got out on was 1987. Even then I screwed up by not getting right back in.
I also have dabbled in silver. In the short term I have done well, but over the long term not so much. I view gold and silver as doomsday insurance. I have some in case the country goes totally down the tubes, but as an investment precious metals suck. If you got bitcoin at $10 I think you are safe. I see it as a Ponzi investment. Only the early investors will do well.
To get back to stocks. As long as there is an America, over the long term nothing will ever beat stocks. The only other asset class to sometimes compare with it is real estate which has it's own set of risks. I am not smart enough for individual stocks. I love mutual funds, especially index funds.
The secret to stocks is to be able to ride out the inevitable crashes. If you can do that, and stay in when all of the other little fellers have been murdered, than you will do extremely well. My experience during the last crash has confirmed me in this belief. My only difficulty now is my age. I am not as rambunctious to survive a downturn as when I was young, but I ain't ascared.