Financial Resources

I recently overheard someone talking about how their 401K balance has dropped by 60 percent since the stock market has gone into a downward spiral. I wondered why they hadn't already moved their retirement funds into safer investments. Granted, the individual who considers him or herself to be a high risk investor has probably chosen to ride out this financial storm. As for me, I feel much better with my investments in low risk bond funds. Now I've heard the argument of buying more shares while the prices are low but for the average individual, you're probably not contributing enough to really make that much of a difference.

If you follow the stock market at all you know how dismal things look right now. It's no surprise since it's just another indication of the financial economic slump we're in today. I don't think I need to remind anyone of just how difficult things are for so many people. However, history dictates that this cannot and will not last forever. Although no one can predict the future, it's apparent that we will eventually rebound from this tumultuous time. Sooner or later is really anybody's guess but I choose to hold on to the hope that things will improve within a relatively short period of time.

Back to our topic at hand...as individual investors, our options are really limited in terms of choices for investments. We've all heard the stories of folks losing a large portion of their retirement funds solely based on the fact their investments consisted mainly of high risk stocks. As stated earlier, it's my personal choice to divert my future retirement income into safer, low risk bond funds. As things begin to rebound then I'll slowly increase my risk level but I'll be playing it safe for the short term.

This is in no way intended to persuade you to do anything different that what you're doing now. It's simply my own perspective on my personal investment choices. Do your research and make choices that are best for your own personal needs.