Blog Archive
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2011
(2576)
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August
(655)
- Ron Johnson - The Wisconsin Way Redux
- Michael Ramirez Nails It
- And While I'm On The Topic Of The Global Warming Scam
- Science, Experts, Models and Uncertainty
- Girl of the Day - The Magical Wife (Elizabeth Mont...
- The Desperation Strategy
- Birthday Today - Van Morrison
- Compare and Contrast
- Social Security as a Ponzi Scheme
- Zinedine Zidane Wife Pictures 2011
- Zinedine Zidane Best Football Player Profile & Ima...
- Bells Are Ringing Alert™: Lady Gaga's secret wedding.
- He Fought The Law Alert™: What the Aruba suspect t...
- Weekly World News alert: Woman gives birth to ali...
- Nokia E6 Mobile Review Unboxing & Package Cont...
- Motorola Atrix 4G mb860
- Motorola Atrix 4G
- Motorola Atrix 4G
- Take This With a Grain of Salt
- Girl of the Day - U.S. Open Version (Caroline Wozn...
- Alex Trebek mystery!
- The truth about Omer Bhatti's parents!
- On the rocks alert: Katy Perry divorce drama
- Nokia 5230 Nuron For T-Mobile USA - Part 1 Of 2
- Girl of the Day - If We're Going to Hell in a Hand...
- Oh, And One More Thing...
- More on the Rick Perry is Dumb Meme
- On the Topic of Conservatives Whose Intelligence I...
- Rick Perry, Dunce
- And the camera noses in to the tears on their face...
- She Fought The Law Alert™: Casey Anthony's death c...
- Bundle of Joy Alert: Tia Mowry's baby boy Cree.
- O2 Mobiles
- Ibrahim Afellay's Family
- Ibrahim Afellay Wallpapers 2011
- Breaking news: Beyonce is pregnant.
- Ibrahim Afellay Young Football Player Pictures 2011
- Ibrahim Afellay Biography
- Malia Jones Swimwear Player Profile & Images 2011
- Sabine Lisicki Boyfriend 2011 Pictures 2011
- Sabine Lisicki Hot Images 2011
- Sabine Lisicki Best Tennis Player Profile & Pics 2011
- Li Na is French Open 2011 Winner
- Windows 7 Phone mango updates : Fujitsu IS12T sale...
- And the Katrina/Irene Comparisons Begin...
- The Inevitable Hurricane Irene Is Caused By Climat...
- Problems With Plastic Alert: JWoww's surgery confe...
- Hey Old Timer Gossip: Doris Day to release first a...
- Not really Brave Last Days alert? Dick Van Dyke an...
- Nokia X3 Mobile Phone Review
- Hurricane Irene and the Media Shitstorm That Will ...
- Girl of the Day - Elizabeth Banks
- Nokia 1800
- Call Me A Crazy Right-Wing Extremist, But...
- Reviews BlackBerry Bold 9900 Phone Mobiles
- "Public" Education in Wisconsin -- The Not So Good...
- Marc Albrighton 2011 Young Player Profile & Images
- Christian Eriksen Young Player 2011 Profile & Images
- Damn You Skinny Alert™: Hollywood's extreme diets
- On the rocks alert: OK! continues to push the stor...
- On the rocks alert: Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Sm...
- Annoying label bookkeeping for Will Smith-Jada Pin...
- Nokia N8 Camera Update - Macro Sample
- Gareth Bale With Girlfriend
- Gareth Bale Latest Wallpapers
- Gareth Bale Football Player Profile and Images 2011
- Slow Joe and the China Gaffe
- Samsung Wave II Review - Samsung Launched
- Samsung Epic 4G Galaxy
- Samsung Epic 4G
- Samsung Epic 4G Sprint
- Samsung Epic 4G Cases
- Girl of the Day - First Day of High School Version
- Nokia Symbian Anna: Personalise Your Mobile
- Meanest story nominee: Burt Reynolds losing his home!
- Meanest story nominee: Obama breaks down after boo...
- Meanest story nominee and Hairdresser Alert™: Russ...
- And the camera noses in to the tears on her face: ...
- Bun in the oven alert™: Bachelorette baby exclusive!
- Skeeter Davis Alert™: Indian scroll says all final...
- The Z-Man Eviscerates the O-Man
- Preference Cascade Update - The Negative 20s Are H...
- Samsung Launches The Bada 2.0 : Wave three phones ...
- Graeme Smith South Africa Player Wife Pictures 2011
- Graeme Smith South Africa Best Player Profile & Pi...
- Eoin Morgan Cricet Best Player Profile & Images 2011
- The New York Times' Anti-Catholic Bigotry Comes Ou...
- Birthday Today - Elvis Costello
- Scott Walker, Paul Ryan and The Wisconsin Way
- Bells Done Rung™: The Kim Kardashian wedding stories.
- Bells are Ringing Alert™ and Love Bird Alert: Sand...
- Bun in the oven alert™: More stories about Jennife...
- Samsung i9100 Amzing Cell phone Photos
- Samsung I7500 Photos
- Samsung s8003 Jet Photos Gallary
- Samsung S8300
- Breaking news: Steve Jobs resigns as Apple CEO
- DROID X 2
- DROID X 2
- DROID X Wallpapers
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August
(655)
Another 500 Point Drop, Another Beautiful Sunny Day
The Dow lost another 500 points today, giving back its gains from yesterday. It's now off about 2000 points over the last three weeks, and down 7.4% for the year-to-date.
Now let's not jump off buildings. The stock market is always volatile; in fact, if the prices weren't volatile, they wouldn't be meaningful reflections of a dynamic marketplace. So they go down sometimes, and then they go up, and the hope is that, over time, they go up more than they go down.
But what if they don't? At least, not over the time horizon that is meaningful to the individual. Consider: if you were 40 on January 1, 1980 and retired at age 60 on January 1, 2000, the stock market had gone from 785 to 10922, an increase of about 14 times. If you were able to save money during that period, you would have seen a tremendous increase in your capital.
But if, like me, you were 40 on January 1, 2000, the stock market since then has gone from 10922 to, well, today's close of 10719. If you were able to save money during that period, you have just about what you started with, and not much more, and maybe a little less.
The truth is, there is always a huge amount of pure luck in life. You are born here, to these parents, rather than there. You are born here, in this time, rather than in that time. If I had been born in 1940 somehow, maybe I would have had an easier time saving for retirement because of the 1980-2000 boom.
On the other hand, maybe my Dad would have died in World War II, or I would have been wounded in Vietnam, or maybe my little sister would have died of polio.
In the end, it doesn't make much sense to envy any other generation, not when you live in America in 2011. Whatever the stock market does, sitting here at my computer, with my beautiful wife and kids at home safe in our suburban Milwaukee home, looking out at blue skies over Lake Michigan, it's hard not to think that we are very fortunate indeed.