An amazing thing happened last month: in the midst of arguably the worst market decline in the lives of most folks, massive amounts of funds are being moved from “safe” investments like money market funds, into junk bonds and emerging market funds. These are the most volatile of all the funds, risky even in the best times.
So, what’s going on? According to this article in the Journal, it’s the playing out of human emotion – as the saying goes “desparate times call for desparate measures”. Or the ultimate “hail mary” play. Unfortunately, the folks that are trying such moves are the ones that can least afford the additional risk of loss. If you’re in a desparate position (nearing retirement and your retirement accounts are dwindling), your best bet is to re-think the retirement timeline, and perhaps consider either delaying retirement for a few years or taking a part-time job in your early retirement to ease the transition.
The worst thing you can do is to take on more risk at this stage in your life. You’ve probably noticed how I never recommend playing the lottery: if more risk was the answer, Lotto would be part of everyone’s portfolio. Unfortunately for those folks that are trying to pull off a miracle, they’re probably just as well off as if they had played the lottery.
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I can learn from you, you can learn from me - please leave your comments and links!Jim Blankenship, CFP®, EA, is an expert in personal retirement, IRAs, and tax issues, with more than 25 years of experience in the industry. Read more from this author
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And if you've come here to learn about queuing waterfowl, I apologize for the confusion. You may want to discuss your question with Lester, my loyal watchduck and self-proclaimed "advisor's advisor".