r/investing • u/peoples_fanatic • 1d ago
My heart skipped a beat looking at my portfolio
I checked my portfolio today after a couple of weeks, and oh my I am so down. I am still a novice investor (about $20k right now) and I am investing for the long-term since I am 22 years. Trying to stay positive with the stock market and will keep on investing. I also don't have a lot of free cash right now since my job is starting in a couple of months. :/
Lesson (for me): don't look at my portfolio. go paint or eat an ice cream instead.
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u/earthtologan 1d ago
Imagine having $1M+ in the market like me and seeing losses of $200k lol
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u/skatchawan 1d ago
especially if you were planning to retire in the next couple years this is a tough one. Note to self, move to low risk even before retirement. Never know when a chaos agent is gonna blow shit up just because they feel like it.
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u/buckinanker 1d ago
Ah hopefully this will work its way out in a couple years, but I wouldn’t be retiring this year for sure!
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u/wangchungyoon 1d ago
Well that’s the thing about hope ….
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u/buckinanker 1d ago
It’s all you got my friend, hope for the best and plan for the worst. I’ve got my bases covered on both fronts
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u/Available_Ad8151 1d ago
It's a good idea to have 3 years living expenses in a high yield savings account or bonds when you retire. You could even up that to 4 years.
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u/D74248 22h ago
Unrequested advice from an old guy. Living off of a portfolio is a lot different from accumulation. 15 years out from retirement start thinking about that. 10 years out have a plan and begin implementing it. It is not simple since the mitigations for the various risks are in conflict.
William Sharpe called living off a portfolio "The nastiest, hardest problem in finance".
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u/PsychologicalWill108 1d ago
except we did know that he was gonna blow up shit… His whole economic policy was tariffs and 16 Nobel Economists even said his policies are inflationary, but so many ppl defending him saying its his negotiation tactic
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u/buckinanker 1d ago
Imagine seeing half of your net worth disappear. That was the GFC, it’s been way worse than this and it’s likely going to get worse.
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u/Lopsided_Echo5232 1d ago
Imagine having a defined benefit scheme with a bank that needed a government bailout during the GFC , job and pension wrecked
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u/buckinanker 1d ago
I can relate to that! I worked at a bank during that time, we didn’t have a defined benefit plan, but definitely lost our jobs as a result. Sorry you got screwed out of your pension.
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u/Lopsided_Echo5232 1d ago
I didn't, but my dad did. Got absolutely crushed. Fortunately this bank screwed and we're not in America, so there were legal proceedings against the bank for how they handled things and got some reimbursements years later. Still absolutely shit though - company stock plans went to 0.
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u/buckinanker 1d ago
Damn, sounds like Bear Stearns. Sorry that happened to Him.
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u/Lopsided_Echo5232 1d ago
Nah European bank - bought out by our gov, but the damage was done then. I’m from one of the PIGS lol
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u/fed875 1d ago
Yeah that’s what they said during COVID when the market fell by 20+%. The Dow was 19k in March 2020. Look where it is now.
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u/ChampsLeague3 1d ago
A pandemic is guaranteed to go away on its own. This is diametrically different.
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u/fed875 1d ago
We had no idea how long the pandemic was going to last. Also the market rebounded to where it was by Aug/September and continued to boom even in the throes of COVID.
My point is that I think this an overreaction and smart investors will continue to hold and buy. The math may change for those approaching retirement but I would hope their wealth is decently protected from short term volatility via other investment vehicles.
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u/dawnguard2021 1d ago
You also forgot they handed out stimulus during the pandemic
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u/fed875 1d ago
The stimulus helped struggling Americans. I don’t think that’s why the market doubled.
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u/fallingdowndizzyvr 1d ago
It absolutely did help. Since it kept companies from folding so that they would be around to come back. It kept consumer spending up by giving people money to spend. In short, it kept the economy running. Which it wouldn't have done without that bailout. What's going to keep the economy running now? Who's going to make up the lost of half their revenue for an inn now that the Canadians are boycotting? There are a lot of business that won't stay in business long with these tariffs. Those businesses were able to stay in business because the stimulus payouts allowed them to. That was the point of the stimulus. To keep as much of the economy intact as possible. If those businesses had folded, the market would not have doubled.
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u/zxc123zxc123 1d ago
I was at $1.3M around last summer. Now I'm around ~$800Ks. Just keep reminding myself: It's just money. It's made up. Pieces of paper with faces on it.
p.s. Everyone here is so unthankful. Has anyone said "Fhank YOU President Elon and VP Trump!" even once?
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u/TimBergling91 1d ago
Were you leveraged or any options?
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u/zxc123zxc123 1d ago
I had some leveraged ETF, but I sold some stocks last fall (1st time home purchase).
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u/FavoriteChild 1d ago
I'm about 700k invested. About a month ago I locked in some gains, and reallocated to bonds, mmf, international stocks, and gold. Setup a bunch of stop losses. I'm still down around 30k.
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u/mythozoologist 1d ago
Yup I sold my consumer retail based stocks and hoped to weather the storm. Now I'm like bonds sound great.
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u/bloatedkat 1d ago
Same. Losing someone's annual salary or entire net worth in a day. But I've been in this game longer than dirt and remain unfazed. I never invest more money in the market than what I can't afford to lose.
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u/NCSeb 1d ago
I was down $71k yesterday and another $73k today. And that's mostly index funds. Yeah. Are we great yet?
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u/wastedkarma 1d ago
Yall are down 20%?
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u/buckinanker 1d ago
That’s what a 100% VOO portfolio does for you. I’m down about 9% but I’m diversified across REITS, Income, Equities and Private Debt and Equity.
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u/MilkshakeBoy78 1d ago
i can't imagine. my portfolio is only around 200k and i put all of it into treasuries before liberation day.
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u/Slow-Independent5724 1d ago
I retired in 2006 and in 2008 the market collapsed from, if memory serves, fromm around 1200 down to 650. Being retired I was able to sit in my chair and listen to Jim Cramer, then on CNBC, saying tomorrow when you go to your ATM there mynot be any money. So, soon thereafter, I moved all my IRA Into an Annuity. I thought the sky was falling.
To make a long story short, the market moved fairly quickly back to over 1,000 and in 2024 maxed out around 45,000. Needless to say, I lost a great opportunity. Short of war, stay the course. Now is the time to sit down and make a plan/strategy for the comeback. Go long
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u/D74248 22h ago
Short of war
Unfortunately, that is very much on the table, with the Baltic states and Taiwan on the menu. The odds may still be long, but they are a lot higher than they were 6 months ago and they are increasing.
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u/rithsleeper 18h ago
Hasn’t war always been good for the market? Or you mean like direct war like ww2?
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u/D74248 14h ago
Russia invading the Baltics will result in a widespread European war. Taiwan plans a scorched earth policy if China invades.
So yea, biggly war.
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u/GiohmsBiggestFan 8h ago
Neither of these are happening soon, for one thing Russia can't even take one of its former satellite states let alone the NATO aligned Baltics
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u/phoenix_jet 1d ago
You shouldn't give a shit at 22.. you should be pouring as much money in as you can as everything is on sale.
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u/KeyImpression8022 1d ago
Just curious, unless America falls and collapse, the market not today tomorrow, but will recover after some time. How do you see long term in that case, i am not saying buy the dips.
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u/Fuehnix 1d ago
Recover or lack of collapse =/= infinite growth or beating out a simple CD, bond, or high yield savings.
If you started investing in 1999, it wouldn't be until 2012 or 2013 that your purchases in the dot com bubble would be consistently positive.
Japan took like 30 years to recover.
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u/Certain_Selection842 21h ago
Why will America recover after shitting on all of its trading partners? Good will and trust takes decades to develop. If we vote in a democrat in 4 years, the world will not trust us cause it could be another Trump in 4 years after that.
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u/GamblingMikkee 1d ago
Down 60k thanks to the orange Buffon
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u/Duck_in_europe 17h ago
Hey now. Gigi Buffon is the greatest Italian goalkeeper of all time. Don’t drag his name into this!
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u/aPriori07 1d ago
It's all just paper losses and numbers on a screen until you sell.
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u/snwstylee 1d ago
Not to doom and gloom, but if we hit another bad recession (or worse)... many will lose their jobs and be forced to sell to stay afloat. At $20k, OP's investments are more of a emergency fund than a long term savings (unless they already have a separate emergency fund).
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u/Valvador 1d ago
Not to doom and gloom, but if we hit another bad recession (or worse)... many will lose their jobs and be forced to sell to stay afloat.
My paranoia of "Keep enough cash on reserve to go jobless for N years" is finally paying off.
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u/sir_snuffles502 22h ago
and there's always the risk that if we go into a market collapse banks might "lose" our money like in 2008. however the gov may not back them up this time around
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u/Zeppo_Ennui 1d ago
What if you were planning on retiring about now?
Those are real losses for many
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u/EricC2010 1d ago
if you are that close to retirement you should be in very low risk investments. The market will always go up and down.
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u/Zeppo_Ennui 1d ago
I’m not. They did. This is still some messed up, unnecessary stuff.
These are real losses for many.
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u/kmmccorm 1d ago
Having some sort of measured economic policy based on data helps reassure that blind faith. Alas …
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u/achshort 1d ago
unless if you're investing on margin
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u/aPriori07 1d ago
Sure, but OP hasn't mentioned any margin and he's young so I'll go ahead and assume we are talking a cash account only here.
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u/EmuPrior 1d ago
I'm not too far off from you with just over 30k invested. I'm buying more now than I ever have to help DCA some previous trades. I am a long-term holder in most cases, so when I see red in the market, I see a flash sale on stocks in cases like this. Just keep on trucking and wait for the market to correct itself. We are young enough to weather the financial storms. That's just my personal opinion for what it's worth.
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u/peoples_fanatic 1d ago
agreed
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u/Rich_Internal9348 1d ago
Think about it like this. You're young, so do what's smart and do your own research and don't listen to anyone's advice on reddit. You will have plenty of years left to DCA and throughout those years it will go up and down.
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u/wildmonster91 1d ago
All trump had to do was nothing and we wpuld have been seeing gains... but nooo here we are. Its 1928 and we just be sitting on out hands. Im just saving and will buy when its 1929...
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u/Western_Bet7098 1d ago
I am down almost $200k because of this piece of s*it clown
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u/JollRoints 1d ago edited 1d ago
Brother you are 22 with 20k savings in your portfolio. Pat yourself on the back and don't even look at your portfolio. Just keep contributing. You'll be fine. I'm 28 with only 4k in my 401k. Although I just started investing last year.. we both have a long ways to go, there will be ups and downs.
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u/Obama_Loves_Krakow 1d ago
It’s just money. Digits in the cloud. Appreciate the people you have in life.
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u/lemmaaz 1d ago
You realize it’s not a loss until you sell? Stop looking and check back in 20 years
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u/diddidntreddit 1d ago
But what if you sell today, it goes down another 10%, and then you buy back in? That's the desire most people have.
It's not to sell and never re-enter the market.
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u/Funnyllama20 1d ago
I texted my brothers a reminder this morning in the form of a joke. I said “this is how you invest in a down market” and it was just a gif of me turning off the notifications. If you’re in it for the long-term—which is the best choice—just don’t think about it. They’ll be worth more when you’re retiring and that’s what matters.
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u/anointedinliquor 1d ago
Look at the 30 year chart. You’re 22, so you have decades to go before you sell. This is just a blip.
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u/Positive-Yam-4246 1d ago
Warren Buffett – “Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful.”
John Templeton – Bought heavily in 1939 when World War II started, making a fortune.
Baron Rothschild – Credited with the “buy when there’s blood in the streets” quote after profiting from panic during the Napoleonic Wars.
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u/Lower_Blueberry1867 1d ago
If your a long term investor and a net buyer of stocks the stock market correction is good news for you as long as you keep your job and can continue to invest. I'm 28, and my portfolio is down about 25k, however I am glad as I can purchase index funds for less now. I don't plan on selling for decades so the lower the prices, the better.
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u/AlphastructHS 1d ago
Man, I deleted Commsec so I can't see. It's somehow easier to deal with losing money if you don't know how much you're losing. Just hold bro, don't sell. Check back in 6 - 12 months unless you plan to DCA during this period. Good luck mate
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u/2ball7 1d ago
I wish I were in the same position as you at this moment. Stocks are literally on sale right now. I remember at the beginning of Covid in mid February I moved all my positions into a secure general fund and on the 18th of March that same year I placed everything from that general fund all in the S&P and almost doubled my position by the time I diversified them again. I got lucky once, but had I started as young as you I would be way further ahead. Don’t get fearful at times like these, you don’t loose if you don’t sell. If you’ve made good investments, keep making those same investments the long ride is the best chance of success.
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u/BarracudaMore4790 1d ago
You need market drops to maximize your investments. You should be very excited for buying opportunities like this at your age.
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u/SaucyCouch 1d ago
Brother the price of all these stocks are down, but the companies themselves have not changed.
It's a buying opportunity
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u/itemluminouswadison 1d ago
lost 10k yesterday, i assume another 10k today. will be eating tap water soup for dinner tonight with a side of tap water steak and tap water to wash it down
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u/Comprehensive_Davo 1d ago
If you’ve done the research and you believe the stocks you hold are fundamentally good stock, you should buy more. Much more.
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u/t0astter 1d ago
This. Downturns are where investors with long time horizons have incredible opportunities to generate more wealth. I lost double OPs entire portfolio just today alone. And I'm going to keep investing anyway because times like this are where future gains are made.
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u/investurug 1d ago
> I am 22 years.
Can you just stfu and not even looking at it? I'm in my 50's and not freaking out like you young fellas
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u/Neuromancer2112 1d ago
You're young and have plenty of time to ride this out. If anything, follow the downtrend over the next week or more, and put some cash into your Roth or a taxable brokerage account as you have some to spare - even buying fractional shares at these kinds of deep discounts will help you later once it recovers.
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u/sessamekesh 1d ago
Another lesson here might be that you're invested in a strategy that's not right for you.
Potential reward and potential risk go hand in hand, you can't have one without the other. A well balanced portfolio should be built with this in mind.
There's a reason some people just camp in blue chips, bonds, etc. as opposed to just letting it ride in big index funds.
It's a bad week to be sure, but if you're going to be investing over a lifetime there will be a lot of bad weeks and you should make sure the risk you take is appropriate for you.
I lost a ton of money today, but only for savings that are long term and I'm not worried about. I didn't lose a dime on my house, emergency, or medical savings that would worry me to lose, and that's very much by design.
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u/robertpeacock22 1d ago
Lisa Simpson voice: "Just don't look! Just don't look!"
Ask your parent or grandparent to explain the reference to you.
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u/shillyshally 1d ago
The question for those bemoaning their losses is, did you vote for this? Trump's love of tariffs was there for all to see. If you did vote for him, then shut the fuck up. If you didn't vote at all, then shut the fuck up.
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u/Soggy-Bad2130 1d ago
Sales are going to go down so badly in the US. affecting so many jobs. Prices meanwhile will go through the roof... This really looks like great depression.
Theta is now on STOCKS! everyday trade war continues we will get closer to a dperession. (with SH tariffs stocks went down 90%)
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u/shrcpark0405 1d ago
The market will bounce back. That is why there is risk involved in investing. Some lost thousands and some lost millions. You made an excellent choice in investing at an early age.
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u/karouse 20h ago
My portfolio value (mainly in big tech stocks) has declined from $800k to $650k in the past 2 months, but it is still way up compared to 2 years ago. The decline usually becomes a blip over the long term. Some big tech companies like AMZN and Google are trading at historical low valuations so I'm aggressively buying more and I don't care if the stock went down more as long as I'm happy with my purchase price.
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u/Str8truth 20h ago
Try to free up some cash to keep investing while prices are low. Those buys will give you your best returns.
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u/intothewoods76 11h ago
Dude this is probably the best opportunity of your lifetime, at 22 you should be buying all the stock you can right now. There’s no reason you should be afraid of stocks going on sale.
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u/granoladeer 1d ago
That's a real thing. Just don't look at your portfolio. Instead, go touch some grass.
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u/JIMMY_RUSTLING_9000 1d ago
You can make those losses back in a paycheck or 2, small potato’s. You should be more worried about the future of the country.
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u/used-quartercask 1d ago
It is much better to be buying at lower prices when you're 22. The lower the price, the higher the expected return. The higher the price the lower expected return. You are a net buyer at age 22 for many years to go.
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u/taishiea 1d ago
don't worry too much about it, it not losses unless you sell. just give it time to recover just like we did from 2008 and covid. it will take time. it is moments like this where you learn to just sit on your hands and not react.
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u/Expensive_Pause_2454 1d ago
Try not to worry too much. If anything, being 22 and getting started with your portfolio right when the market is going to take a big tumble is one of the best positions one can be in during a lifetime (as long as your employment isn't affected). Can't lose too much in the grand scheme and your savings and 401k contributions will be buying in at a relative low point.
Consider that there are near-retirement age folks seeing their retirement age being pushed back by years now if they did not have something to mitigate Sequence of Return Risk. Whereas your trajectory is almost not affected at all.
Stay positive and learn everything you can (from reasonable sources)! There wasn't this level of information about personal finance and investing back in 2008 when I was entering the workforce.
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u/Fuehnix 1d ago
You should leave a lot of your money in a high yield savings account for now. 2022 was negative returns, I find it hard to believe 2025 will be above +4%. And even if it is, will it really be dramatically over that?
Also, what if something happened and you had to sell when it was down?
High yield savings means that it's never down, it's just growing slowly.
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u/att2477 1d ago
I’m 25 and I’m currently down 2,500 and am at 23,000 I’m still upset about the loss mine is experiencing but at the same time it’s not as bad as others
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u/Callec254 1d ago
At your age, you should be celebrating that you can buy more at such cheap prices.
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u/Jack_Riley555 1d ago
You’re 22… forget about it. You’ll have this happen at least 2 or 3 times in your lifetime.
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u/Shmogt 1d ago
This is actually the best for you. It allows you to invest more in the short future at cheaper prices. Over time you'll have more shares at a lower price and once the market goes up you'll be making way more money. A small crash like this is actually the best thing possible for young investors who have a longer time horizon
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u/alphalegend91 1d ago
Welcome to the circus!
But seriously, keep in mind that your time horizon for retirement is, at the very least, 20+ years. Don't let a blip in the market rattle you. This is bad, but there have been crashes like this before. We should recover from this and continue onto new ATH. How long that might take is the only question.
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u/backtobrooklyn 1d ago
The best thing that ever happened to me investing wise was when I started to embrace massive dips. When it dips, I get so excited — will text my friends “great day to buy!” and invest as I can, though try to do that every day regardless.
As long as you have steady income coming in, look at dips as an opportunity to buy stocks on sale and at prices just a few weeks ago that you thought you wouldn’t have access to again.
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u/ginleygridone 1d ago
Hate to see it, but these are buy low opportunities that will pan out in the long run.
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u/rainman_104 1d ago
I don't think we're there yet. We may see a dead cat bounce but something else will come along that's dumb too.
Europe will counter tariff, weak earnings, bad jobs report, bad inflation report.
We're not close to done.
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u/infinit9 1d ago
You are 22, you are fine. This is the perfect opportunity to buy for the young investors.
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u/ALMessenger 1d ago
The man who picked up a cat by the tail learned a lesson you can learn in no other way
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u/iattemptmorality 1d ago
I genuinely feel so fucking awful for all of the everyday people that wanted a safe investment, and lost (in only two days) 10.5% of spy holdings, essentially everything ‘safe’ dropping 5-10%+ in a week. Many people that were close to retiring with an Ira/roth etc. While the massive institutional selling/consumer buying could be seen in different ways, I can only see it as corporate greed and consumer desperation to not have to work until death. It’s depressing as fuck
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u/Endless-OOP-Loop 1d ago
That's why they say not to sell any stock you purchase for at least five years.
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u/Appropriate_Ad7858 1d ago
Being 22, this is a fantastic time for this to happen to you. You will remember this but also you can buy shares on sale. This is only a win for you.
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u/Rivercitybruin 1d ago
Live time horizon probably ok
I umfortunately meed to spend my diminished portolio, meanimg i lock in some of these losses
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u/DividendGrowthMarkus 1d ago
“Trying to stay positive with the stock market and will keep on investing. I also don't have a lot of free cash right now”.
Market declines are the chance to buy cheaper securities. You might not have much free cash now but what you do have will go further.
(Ideally you would want a 99% decline in stock prices while you accumulate and then a huge % increase in future once you’ve bought those assets.)
Keep calm and carry on dripping!
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u/Soggy-Bad2130 1d ago
Sales are going to go down so badly in the US. affecting so many jobs. Prices meanwhile will go through the roof... This really looks like great depression.
Theta is now on STOCKS! everyday trade war continues we will get closer to a dperession. (with SH tariffs stocks went down 90%)
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u/Budget_Thing7251 1d ago
I haven’t checked our entire portfolio (too scared), but we lost enough from what I saw that we canceled a major home remodel that we were about to drop 200k on (we had found a contractor and were going to sign the contract next week).
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u/core916 1d ago
As someone who is young I literally am not even looking right now. I just am approaching it as a picking up all these on a nice sale. I'm actually buying more than what I was in the months leading up to this. The people that should be concerned are the older ones who were close to retirement. But everyone saw this coming. It was an ample amount of time to adjust your portfolio to protect yourself.
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u/Gold_Measurement_486 22h ago
I feel like its unfair that we look at losses from the all time high. Really, all we lost was a years growth so far, and investing has always been meant for long term growth over at least 5 years
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u/Finbitson 20h ago
Yeah me also only been investing a few years thought it was going well but this has been a shock, had many opportunities to take my money out but wasn't paying enough attention, I'm just gonna hold it out, even if it takes 5 years to recover no point in selling. I might even invest the dip on a different account and platform so I don't have to look at it!
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u/suitupyo 18h ago
Man dude, if you’re only 22 you should be loading up on investments right now. Tons of stocks from amazing companies are on sale and may never be this cheap in your lifetime. Of course, it could get a bit worse in the next couple months, but at your age, time is your friend. For the young, this could be an opportunity to build generational wealth.
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u/Alone-Phase-8948 18h ago
You're lucky I lost over 20,000 in my IRA in 2 days. But in my trading account I was able to buy uvxy and short Tesla so in two days I was up about 6 grand on that, that was covering all the other losses I had in my trading account as well.
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u/Late-Noise1355 17h ago
I was in a similar situation in March of 2020 my biggest regret was not buying more!! Take advantage of the short term prices for the long term outlook!!
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u/dudeatwork77 15h ago
You should be jumping with joy. Firesale like this only happens once every few years. Keep stacking as the crypto bros say.
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u/CasualObserver9000 1d ago
Being 22 this is a fire sale. The people who should be worried are people getting ready to retire.