DISQUS

klerg · 11 months ago

I've sorta/kinda planned for it. I purchase $3K worth of the Vanguard 500 Index Fund last year. So I'm a happy camper if the S&P gains 20%!!!

BJ Flora · 11 months ago

I'm expecting (hoping!) for a significant recovery in '09. On 1/2/09 I purchased our Roth IRAs, as I do every year. One year I had to back it out due to income. If you think the recovery is coming sooner than later, there's no reason to wait until April.

vh · 11 months ago

Nope. Not that I'm selling out of my investments or anything rash.... But honestly, I don't think a collapse of this magnitude will resolve itself in just a few months.

We just got a memo from our university president, flagged "high importance," reporting that "Arizona legislative leaders released their recommendations for addressing the state’s budget deficit, including an unprecedented proposal to reduce the state investment in the Arizona university system by $243 million for the remaining few months of fiscal year 2009. [Legislators] also proposed reducing the Arizona university system budget by $388 million in fiscal year 2010. If enacted, these would be the largest higher education budget reductions in the state history...."

Suppose he's trying to tell us something? Like maybe "reserve your space in the unemployment line now"?

thomas · 11 months ago

I kind of hope it stays low for a little while. Selfishly, I just started investing towards the peak of bubble, so it would be nice to average out a little bit.

Eden · 11 months ago

Well, I'm not an author or expert...but this prediction seems overly optimistic. This is the biggest financial mess of my lifetime. I can't see it ending in such a short amount of time. I think we will have plenty more buying opportunities in the market this year. I wouldn't be surprised if we see a nice market run after the inauguration, but I'm guessing we finish the year down again.

VC · 11 months ago

The market will not recover much, if it does even recover, in 2009. Unemployment is continuing to rise, even companies like Pfizer, which is suppose to be "recession proof," are laying off people. With so much unemployment it will be hard for businesses to grow because no one will be spending money. We will have to wait for President- Elect Obama's Stimulus plan to work. But even with that, the stimulus plan is expected to take almost a year to start working since infrastructure building takes time to get initiated because of getting building permits and planning. We are clearly witnessing that right now the poor earnings of the 4th quarter have not even been priced into the market. After the s&p 500 finishes up their earnings, we might have a short rally but it will not last because monthly unemployment numbers will come out again. People are hoping the market is going to get better, which is what is causing these short term rallies, but the fact is that the fundamentals of the economy are not improving so the market will not improve.

Dan · 11 months ago

Whether Siegel's optimistic prediction comes true, or even if 2009 proves to be a repeat of 2008 (ouch!) my plan is the same.

I'm contributing the max bi-weekly to my 401 and 457, and afer-tax I'm investing heavily in BRSIX as leftover funds allow to try to rebalance with new money. In a couple of weeks, once BRSIX is rebalanced, I'll dedicate that leftover money to my 2009 Roth. Once the Roth is maxed out, I dunno, I'll figure it out from there.

kitty · 11 months ago

"but the fact is that the fundamentals of the economy are not improving so the market will not improve."
This is not really true. Markets look forward not backwards, and market moves usually preceed the economy turn around by several months. At some point bad news get factored into the market and earnings estimates come down. At this point even smaller-than-expected loss is a positive and stocks start going up. Are the expectations low enough now? Recent news from Citi and BAC showed otherwise. When will they be lowered enough? I've no idea.

Having said that, I do believe that his prediction is optimistic. But nobody really knows...

Tony · 11 months ago

Jerry's 2008 forecast was way off the mark claiming we would not go into a recession. Why should his 2009 forecast be correct? The only thing he has going for him is the law of averages where after a year where markets droped about 40% the likelyhood of a continued drop is not real high.