Don’t Look!
I caught myself in an interesting bit of economic behavior a couple of days ago. It’s an experience I’m sure many people are having about now.
I got my quarterly statement for our taxable mutual fund account and I was in no hurry to open it. Not like these statements are like Christmas day even in an up market, but I just had no interest in looking at it. Because I already knew it was going to be ugly.
Naturally it was. It’s an S&P index fund, so you can figure out the losses.
Funny. I never minded opening the statement or looking up performance online while the market was going up. Hmmm.
July 13th, 2008 at 10:44 pm
Funny post. I know how you feel. Better to not look at the statement though than to give into fear and sell at the bottom.
July 15th, 2008 at 2:18 am
I look at the value of my account several times a day when the market is up, but only a couple times a day when it’s down. It’s just more fun to look at when the last row is green and not red.
After a lot of thought over the years, I came to the conclusion that I’m better off if the market goes down in the short term. See http://www.wisemoneydecisions.com/2008/03/06/you-may-be-better-off-if-the-stock-market-keeps-going-down/
Even though the math is irrefutable (as long as the assumptions are true), it’s still hard to stomach a downturn. But it makes it easier when I can honestly say to myself that it’s better for me in the long run.