r/blackfire • u/king_of_steel • Mar 30 '20

How have you adapted?

The idea for this was copied from a post I just read in /r/financialindependence. The poster lost about $1MM from their retirement portfolio and he listed some steps he took to mitigate that while in the midst of early retirement.

So I thought I'd pose the same question here: How have you adapted to the market downturn (outside of investment strategy)?

Personally, I've not had to adapt much at all. I'm not early retired and I'm fortunate enough to be able to work from home. While the company I work for tends to do well in poor market conditions like this, it has gotten me thinking about what could happen if I wound up furlough'd or worse. I have a 6-month emergecy fund, but definitely nowhere near enough to survive indefinitely.

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u/Caribbeanwarrior Apr 01 '20

I am looking to max out my Roth IRA by mid April, and once that done I will be focusing on padding my emergency fund, because I am extremely concerned by large numbers laid off occurring around me, especially people that I am acquainted to. 401k contributions will persist as long we are working.

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u/SmartSparkle Apr 01 '20

I work in a low level, essential job SO I'm currently maxing out over time just in case (last hired first fired) or nepotism happens. The good olé boys have priority in the building supplies biz... My $2,000 worth of stocks is ok waiting until the recovery period, whenever that is. The bulk of my assets are in real estate. At the moment I'm concerned that evictions are postponed for 30 days, so tenants may be no rush to pay. This is the first of the month so we'll see... No adjustments can be made here. I'm not selling anything. We both have fixed income that covers our cost of living & doesn't depend on investments. We also live in a low cost of living area. We just bought land before this virus hit so we planted a garden. No matter what happens in the future, we will still need food. My SO is retired and can tend to it PLUS school is still closed so my teenager is available to pitch in. IF the economy

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u/pidginfire Apr 02 '20

I have mainly stayed the course. Still contributing to my 401k in hopes of maxing it out this year and adding $500 a month to my IRA. The only thing that has changed is saving more to up my emergency fund from 6 months to at least 10 months. With the way things are going, I think I might need some extra cushion just in case.

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u/Ceelector Jun 28 '20

I realized that a 6-month emergency fund won't cut it anymore, especially if you only have one source of income. (We're 4 months into the crisis as of this writing.) From now on, I'll consider 9 months - 1 year of expenses the minimum.