Royal Bank of Scotland: "SELL EVERYTHING!"

[Angel Eyes]

TEOTWAWKI!!   TIKIWIKI!!   Eleventy!!

http://money.cnn.com/2016/01/12/investing/markets-sell-everything-cataclysmic-year-rbs/index.html

[brimic]

If everything sells everything, it will be cataclysmic!

[bedlamite]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYrpROr9Gmk

[Angel Eyes]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYrpROr9Gmk

... which is why infants are not allowed to do financial planning (although sometimes it seems like they are).

[RevDisk]

They must want to pick up cheap assets from people that panic easily.

[Angel Eyes]

They must want to pick up cheap assets from people that panic easily.

That was my thought as well.

[Ben]

Yup. Getting out of the market now is a good way to really lose your money. Buy on bad news, sell (or let it ride) on good news. :)

I actually heard a guy on Fox Business this morning talking about DOW 6000 and, "get out now!!!".

[seeker_two]

... which is why infants are not allowed to do financial planning (although sometimes it seems like they are).

So.....how are we going to keep the Democrats out of Wall Street?....

[agricola]

They must want to pick up cheap assets from people that panic easily.

the irony of course being that RBS are a cheap asset as a result of panicking easily

[charby]

If everything sells everything, it will be cataclysmic!

Then I'll be buying as much as I can afford.

[Hawkmoon]

If everything sells everything, it will be cataclysmic!

It's also impossible. If EVERYONE is selling ... who's buying?

[roo_ster]

It's also impossible. If EVERYONE is selling ... who's buying?

Dave Mustaine.

[Hutch]

For all you folks revealed by your "buy the dips" and "it'll always recover" beliefs....

Isn't there a teeny voice in the back of your mind that says "Beans, Bullets, Band-Aids, and Bullion...RFN!".

Serious question.  Serious (as possible, this is APS, after all) answers, please.

[MechAg94]

If things really fell apart, I think $2000 in long-storage food would be more valuable than an ounce of gold.

[Hutch]

If things really fell apart, I think $2000 in long-storage food would be more valuable than an ounce of gold.

It is right now, too.  Almost twice the price.  That being said, you'll take less of a beating, and maybe technically profit, if you decide to rethink your outlook and unload gold.  No established secondary market exists for shelf-stable food.  Lotsa buyers for gold.  Food tastes better, tho'.

Otoh, if food supplies are universally disrupted to the point of mass starvation, civil order will be a dim memory.

[Ben]

For all you folks revealed by your "buy the dips" and "it'll always recover" beliefs....

Isn't there a teeny voice in the back of your mind that says "Beans, Bullets, Band-Aids, and Bullion...RFN!".

Serious question.  Serious (as possible, this is APS, after all) answers, please.

Little voice? Sure, back around the 1% section. It's why my emergency preps center around 24 hours to a few months time spans based on likely disasters, and preps are there, but drop off significantly for longer time spans.

If we're talking market or global market crashes, all I can say is that I base my investing on historical data, mathematics, and probabilities. My investments have survived and grown through, several now, "We've never seen anything like this before! The entire first world is affected!" economic meltdowns. Had I panicked and sold all my stock and bond assets for bullets and freeze dried food, well, I'd be sitting on a lot of bullets and freeze dried food, and would have missed out on an average 9% growth of my money over that time period. I would right now still be working because I wouldn't have had enough investment funds set aside to retire.

The people who jumped out windows during the 1920s stock market crash are people who panicked and sold all their assets, or people who weren't diversified and bet the farm on a single, or a few stocks. As bad as that market crash and the "great depression" sound in the history books, lots of people made lots of money in the years following the depression because they held onto their assets and/or invested in a "horrible" market.

Anyway, I live on a farm in a region with some of the best soils in the country, so if everything goes to hell, I can always live off my garden and heirloom seeds. :)

[brimic]

If things really fell apart, I think $2000 in long-storage food would be more valuable than an ounce of gold.

Otoh, if food supplies are universally disrupted to the point of mass starvation, civil order will be a dim memory.

$2000 worth of BBQ sauce and charcoal or wood pellets (see Meat thread). Plenty of long pork on the hoof.

[RevDisk]

For all you folks revealed by your "buy the dips" and "it'll always recover" beliefs....

Isn't there a teeny voice in the back of your mind that says "Beans, Bullets, Band-Aids, and Bullion...RFN!".

Serious question.  Serious (as possible, this is APS, after all) answers, please.

If one has a degree of sense, or merely wants a comfortable retirement, both is the answer. You want a 401k/investments and on hand supplies. Dumping $10k into food you're likely not going to eat is likely taking $40k-$100k out of your retirement. OTOH, having a month worth of food that you tend to rotate through anyways is a trivial cost. If not slightly cheaper due to bulk purchasing. I can get 24 rolls of quality paper towels in bulk for the same price as buying 12 individually. So, yes, I do have the voice in the back of my mind. I don't try, I DO slap it down. I tell it very clearly: STFU, 10% of paycheck into 401k, 5% into post-tax investments, pay bills and THEN indulge in the unlikely scenarios.

Global or US collapse is a possibility. Growing old is a certainty, only avoidable by untimely death. It makes sense to focus on the certainty and take care of the possibilities on an "as needed" basis.

Now if you live in a hurricane, flood or winter weather impacted area, obviously be prepared to deal with routine and expected emergencies.

[brimic]

I don't try, I DO slap it down. I tell it very clearly: STFU, 10% of paycheck into 401k, 5% into post-tax investments, pay bills and THEN indulge in the unlikely scenarios.

Our country would be a much better place if everyone took that advice, whether 'unlikely scenarios' = tinkwinky event, winning the powerball, or peacocking one's way into a mating situation with someone way above one's social status.

[Blakenzy]

So what do other banks say?