So, all I heard on NPR this morning was about how the stock market has tanked lately, is currently tanking, and will continue to tank in the predictable future. I think it's interesting that I care about this, and that it means something to me--K, toweling off, told me that when people used to talk about "stock market crashes" when he was a kid, he pictured a literal crash, like, someone crashing their car into a machine vital to the success of the national economy and breaking it, and I was thinking about how people talk about things without really having a sense of what they mean sometimes, especially as kids. You know "stock market loses a whole bunch of money" is a thing that people talk about, but you don't really know what that is, or why it matters, or have any stake in it at all. But you talk about it anyway, because it's a thing that people talk about.
It can still be that way as an adult, and I'm not discounting the influence of What People Talk About, but it was interesting this morning to feel like I sort of understood what was going on and why it matters, that it means something to me, it affects my life and my behavior and my plans. I kind of don't want to check the balances on my retirement accounts, but I know that I'll just keep plugging along, investing dutifully through my 401(k) and letting my Roth ride out the storm, which will pass, certainly, by the time I am seventy years old and ready to retire from whatever it is that I've ended up doing with my life.
Friday, August 10, 2007
No News Is Good News
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2 comments:
Sounds like a good attitude. I just see losses on the news, get a vague sense of "ouch," and move on. I've tried not to check the balances of my retirement accounts for the last few weeks... it's hard.
i know what you mean about sorta knowing whats being talked about in the news etc...it feels like you're 'grown up'...i experience that more and more each day!
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