Educational Savings Accounts

[lewdog]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

Personally, after losing hundreds of thousands of dollars after the 2008 crash, I'm done. I'll never put money there, again. I'd rather see a 1% yield and have my money, rather than 60% losses while "hoping" it comes back to even.

Yea but you are looking at it wrong. The money you had at your peak portfolio was worth way more than the money you actually put into it. Given decades of compounding interest, it's amazing to actually see what you put in an account and how much it's worth with even 7-8% growth over decades. So while saving in something with little to no growth means you don't lose, you also never would have had the great amount of money the market gained you at your peak portfolio time. Almost in a sense you'd be in the same spot whether you invested and went to the point of the crash and your money's value or whether you only put money into a savings account. But then if you rode out the last bull market, you be back to close to 90%+ of you peak portfolio which contained lots of money that was never really "yours" to begin with.

Hope that isn't confusing......investing is a roller coaster but even with huge swings, long term you still come out way ahead of a savings account in during bear markets. Most people get attached to money that wasn't really there to begin with...interest gains.