Originally Posted by bullwinkle
I've done fairly well on my 401K, but I just haven't had enough confidence in the market's long term strength to put everything in it. Sad thing is, too many (if not most) working people spend everything they make (or more), and just don't have the financial discipline to NOT buy that new car on credit, or pay off those CC bills every month. I thank the Man upstairs that I've stayed mostly healthy (turned 55 this year), and have managed to scrounge together quite a bit. No danger of this moose retiring anytime soon, though, one major illness for me or Mrs. Bullwinkle, that cash would disappear pretty quickly.
Only reason I don't get out is that it's very hard to time the market. You might be able to get out in time, but then you don't get back in on time. There's only a few days where most of the gains in the stock market are made, other times it's just sideways. So I always figured to stay fully invested. I remember someone telling me that they got out 2 years ago because they felt it was too high. I just remember back to 1996 when they said the market was overvalued. They kept saying that for another 4 years when it finally tanked. But when it tanked, it didn't drop back to 1996 levels.
Maybe it's just as well that there aren't more people investing. I think there was an old saying that when the shoe shine boys back in 1920's were giving stock market tips, that's when people knew it was time to get out.