I’m just back from a national meeting, my first in 6 years.
Spending time away from the office and the inbox, while attending educational sessions, was invigorating. Returning to a week’s worth of messages and to-do’s is not.
Right now, looking at my work load, retirement sounds mighty attractive. However, while I was away, the stock market decided to jump off a cliff.
I have finally checked my brokerage account, ignoring lesson #2 from dealing with market crashes. My net worth is still respectable, but definitely not where it was in February, when I had that talk with my boss.
After losing so much money, with no guarantee my portfolio total might not drop lower, I’m glad I will still be employed in a few months. What a way to dodge that sequence of returns risk.
I am torn between hunkering down and looking at cutting expenses like it’s 2009 vs going ahead and spending as I had been planning, mostly on the house and maybe travel. I suppose I can do both if I like: cut back on the stuff I don’t care about but still make my life a little nicer if the money is there.
How are you dealing with the stock market drop? (No politics, please, tempting though it is to discuss why the market tanked.)