Results tagged “investing” from Missing Manuals Blog

Retiring at 65 could mean as many as 30 to 35 years running seniors' marathons, dipping your toes in tropical waters, or just cooling your heels. Over long periods of time, the ups and downs of the stock market even out. That's no help when retirement is looming and the market is in the tank along with your retirement portfolio. But getting your spending money by selling investments whose values have dropped could be the torpedo that sinks your retirement ship.

UPDATE: President Bush on Friday signed legislation that increased the amount of savings insured by the FDIC in an account from $100,000 to $250,000 (until December 31, 2009).

With the stock market gyrations the last few days, several people asked me if I was in trouble because of the stock market. My answer was simple, "No, because I don't have to sell any investments."

The recent roller-coaster highlights an important aspect of personal finance: the stock market really isn't rational.