I hear 
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Egads, well there you go…
Stocks Climb, Poised for Records
A Friday rally in the Dow put the index in positive territory for the week along with the S&P and Nasdaq.
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Mods, please change the name of this thread to “Stocks go up, up, up and then up some, and then up some more” to reflect the actual stock market at this time.
TIA
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In advance of my Europe trip, I sold off about 1/3 of my holdings (nothing with tax implications). Maybe that’s a dumb move and I should have an asset allocation I don’t want to undo during a 10-day trip. That’s just a bit of peace of mind that if things go south while I’m touring France and I don’t deal with it, then it will only be 2/3 as bad. Probably a lame move.
Also I’m trying to decide if I should finance my upcoming car purchase. Turning 50 and having my sights set at retiring around 55, I’m more excited about not having something come out of my bank account every month.
After the great run stocks have had, I’m concerned that increasing covid + less stimulus will eventually result in things losing steam, and I would almost rather pay in cash then borrow money at 1.9% and assume I’ll come out better. Call me paranoid. Or old.
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You’re not paranoid. 1.9% is higher than the risk-free rate… I’d pay cash if it were me. I bought a new car last year for cash. Yeah, maybe I’d have done better investing, but I like the peace of mind.
Also, I got several thousand “cash back” for paying cash. And the dealer wasn’t offering any fantastic rate. I think it was like 2.9%… maybe even 3.9%. That rate and not getting the cash back made it an easy decision for me.
really - 1.9%??? You’re 50. You’re old enough to remember interest rates from decades ago. 1.9% is chump change. There are managed accounts that charge that much in fees. There are mutual funds with fees 1/2 - 2/3 of that.
And do you think inflation is right around the corner waiting to rear its ugly head. And you can lock in 1.9% now??? What would 55YO Klaymen tell 50YO Klaymen?? He’ll likely slap you upside the head and tell you to stop being such a chucklehead.
Take the loan, pay it off early if you’ve got the cash and it’s bothering you irrationally.
That part isn’t very compelling, as most of my investments have expense ratios under 0.5% or even 0.1%.
But, I will consider what you said. It’s not like I can’t pay off the loan whenever I want. I don’t know for a fact that the offer will be 1.9% but a quick internet search suggests that. I won’t be taking delivery of the car until sometime after I’m back from Europe so plenty of time to consider on a plane, train, or automobile.
Make sure you understand the trade offs. Will you pay the same price if you finance?
As I said, in my case there was an incentive of several thousand dollars “cash back” (ie lowering the price by that amount) if you paid cash.
I mean, I ended up negotiating with the dealer, but the dealer doesn’t get the cash back from the factory if you finance so it factored into what the dealer was willing to offer. The negotiations certainly turned more favorable once the salesman realized I’d be paying cash.
Maybe there’s not a lot of incentives now though due to the new car shortage. But still… check.
Yes, my car purchase is going to be a bit impetuous, didn’t want to my buy 50th birthday present when I am 52! I don’t think I am going to have much leverage though, there are hardly any cars lying around in the dealership lots. I wanted a blue car, so they located one being made or about to be made and assigned it to me.
First 2%+ single day decline since I don’t even remember.
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-3% for the Dow would be -1,037 points. Got a decent chance to end there today. In the past, -3% would be enough for CNBC to hoist a “MARKETS IN TURMOIL” chryon up and schedule a “special discussion” on today’s massive drop slated for 8pm Eastern.
Really can’t wait for Powell to announce new emergency measures the Fed is undertaking to calm the markets.
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Bounce back tomorrow or more gloom & doom?
Why did they go down so much today?
From wsj headline:
Worries about spreading contagion from troubles in China’s property market.
Also, somewhere I read about the fed ending support for their corporate welfare market stimulus
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as far as i know the market just goes up and down and i just watch the numbers not knowing why
rookie numbers
China housing bubble. One of the developers is going bankrupt.
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As others have partially noted, the second largest housing development company in China is heavily in debt and they have interest payments coming up that it seems unlikely they can pay. Apparently they account for something like 2% of China’s GDP.
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Today’s opening rally on the S&P lasted an hour and 19 minutes.