Man Invests Whats Left Of His Life Savings Back In The Stock Market. Crazy or Smart?

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Having never owned a single stock certificate (personally) and now having very little left to lose, I've decided that the only logical thing to do is to invest in the very stock markets that lost 50% of my 401k in one year that was 22 years in the making. While the $252,000 that I have left may seem like alot to many, it's a far cry from the more than a half a million dollars that I had just over a year ago. I was a 401k and Mutual Fund guy never having the courage to go and make my own individual stock investments and felt that I was more safe leaving it up to the "professionals" to do it for me. Well...we all know how that turned out so, off I go with the attitude that even if I lose the other half of my retirement, I will still have done just as good of a job as the professionals.

Below are the stocks where $48,000 dollars from a closed out T.Rowe Price account was reallocated by me and everyone that I have talked to says that I must be out of my fucking mind to invest one penny in the market. I based my investments mostly on the premace that even in a recession / depression, people will still need to brush their teeth, wipe their ass, and attend to basic hygene inititaves.

The second part of my stratigy is that people are opting out of the big box stores like Macy's, Saks, Bloomingdales, etc. and shopping brand name discount or (off-price) as I have learned that stores like Marshalls, TJMaxx, Ross, Burlington Coat Factory, and Stein-Mart are called. I stuck with TJX because of their shear size over the other and have been going into the stores quite frequently and find them relatively busy particularly on weekend days. At the same time, The Macy's and Sears Store right across the street are virtual ghost towns.

I doubt that Office Depot will survive much longer, but should they somehow weather the storm and return to even their 52 week high of $14.39, I will have tripled my $48,000 investment on that stock alone. Should the rest of these companies survive with or without Office Depot, and return to their current 52 week high, I will have recovered 6 times of just the amount of my 401k that the "professionals" lost on Wall Street by investing less than 1/4 of that same amount in this crazy market. So you see, I truely have nothing to lose. However, there are some that are trying to have a local judge find me incompitant to manage my financial affairs and appoint at trustee to keep me from rendering myself homeless. It's not that they don't have money of their own and want to take mine, I thinks it's that they don't want to feel obligated to support me should I render myself pennyless as well as homeless. And they think I'm crazy?

Kimberly-Clark (KMB) $46.10 52 week high $66.66

Proctor & Gamble (PG) $46.63 52 week high $73.57

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $47.64 52 week high $72.76

Marshalls & TJMaxx (TJX) $21.43 52 week high $37.52

Staples, Inc. (SPLS) $15.10 52 week high $26.57

Office Depot (ODP) .089 52 week high $14.39

Colgate - Palmolive (CL) $57.32 52 week high $80.49

Today I saw the article and video below on The Politico and found it ironic that President Obama was now suggesting that people do what I already done and heve been doing for the passed 6 months. I would love feedback to see how many people think I'm crazy and pissing away my money, or taking a chance that just might payoff.

The Politico Article and Video Are Posted Below
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/19567.html




President Barack Obama did his best imitation of a CNBC market analyst Tuesday, suggesting this week’s market swoon is a good time to buy stocks. Responding to a question about the suffering Dow, Obama said, "What you’re now seeing is profit and earning ratios are starting to get to the point where buying stocks is a potentially good deal, if you’ve got a long-term perspective on it." That’s tricky territory for a chief executive. Presidents usually steer clear of dispensing anything that sounds like an Oval Office stock tip, mindful that their very words can shake the global markets. Not only that, but Obama’s team has repeatedly cautioned reporters against judging him by the ups and downs – and lately downs – of the stock market, scraping 12-year lows. Then there’s the more practical issue — it’s famously difficult for investors to "call a bottom," or predict the very moment at which a downturn reverses course and buying stocks is, in fact, a good idea.

Obama’s advice came a day after the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped nearly 300 points, but it was down only slightly Tuesday, a 37-point dip to 6726. "It sounds like he’s been listening to his good friend Warren Buffett," said Shannon Zimmerman, a senior analyst and advisor at The Motley Fool, a financial services company based in Alexandria, VA. "He might be a value investor himself."


Zimmerman largely agrees with Obama’s take on the market. "Unless you think Depression 2.0 is under way, if you are a long-term investor, the goal is to buy value on the cheap and now is a good time to do it." The challenge for Obama is that the stock market could still decline substantially, in which case his comments could become an embarrassing reminder of bad judgment.

And of course any voters who follow his advice today – and lose money – won’t be pleased. Obama’s statement was carefully hedged. The president said that buying stocks is a "potentially" good deal. And he added the caveat that he was looking at the "long-term perspective." And he noted that he doesn’t pay attention to the stock market’s "day-to-day gyrations." Later in the afternoon, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs faced questions about Obama’s comments, including from one reporter who asked if the president was serving as the nation’s "first stockbroker." Gibbs was quick to note the president’s caveats, emphasizing them with his voice as he repeated the president’s statement: "Potentially, if you look at the long term." "It’s not his job to comment on or react to what the market does up and down on any given day, but instead to look at the longer term, at the longer horizon at what can be done in this country to meet those challenges," Gibbs said. Maybe the president’s comments should carry the same disclaimer that mutual funds and investment professionals include in their advertising: "Past performance is no guarantee of future results."

Right Wing Claims Stock Market Declined Because Obama Was Nominated For President

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Since the presidential election last November, the right wing has seized nearly every opportunity to link any sharp decline in the stock market (without any basis in fact) to Barack Obama. Yesterday, losses on Wall Street forced the Dow Jones industrial average to close "below 7,000 for the first time since 1997" and like clockwork, the right (and some on Wall Street) jumped to blame Obama. The Wall Street Journal claimed today that "Obama’s policies have become part of the economy’s problem."


Laura Ingraham said today that Obama’s policies "are not giving us the confidence we need to get back into the market." Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity touted the line as well, but added that the market’s problems started when Obama was nominated to be the Democratic Party’s candidate for president in the middle of last year:


LIMBAUGH: To say that Obama has been in office only one month is not accurate from an effect on the world and an effect on the country standpoint. Barack Obama has been the controlling political authority on the economy for six months.


HANNITY: Now if we go back to May 6th when it was apparent that he was going to probably be the Democratic nominee the stock market was over 13000, and if we go to October just before the election…the stock market was, what, around the 11000 plus mark.


Watch the compilation:


Of course, the Limbaugh-Hannity theory carries little weight as the market decline started well before Obama’s nomination. The market peaked in October 2007 and "came tumbling down last spring, when the bursting of the housing bubble started to add up to massive losses for Wall Street banks and other financial services firms tied to bad mortgages."

In fact, yesterday’s decline came as "investors reacted to reports that construction and industrial activity had continued to decline and to a $61.7 billion loss posted by the insurance giant, the American International Group." Moreover, the main issue surrounding the market’s fall is decreased company profits as a result of a weak economy, not Obama’s policies. As USA Today noted this morning, "[p]rofits are down sharply" which is "driving stock prices down sharply."

President Obama noted earlier today that "the banking system has been dealt a heavy blow" to the market. "We dug deep hole for ourselves, he said. "There was a lot of bad decisions that were made. We’re cleaning up that mess. … But its going to get cleaned up."

Pence: ‘You Bet’ We Want Obama’s Policies To Fail

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In recent days, increasing numbers of conservative activists and commentators have followed Rush Limbaugh’s lead in rooting for President Obama to fail. Now, it seems the House Republican leadership is getting on the bandwagon.

On CNN this afternoon, Rick Sanchez asked Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) — the Chairman of the House Republican Caucus — if he agreed with Rush Limbaugh’s claim that "all Republicans want Barack Obama to fail." Pence at first demurred, calling Sanchez’s question a "nice try." "I know what Rush Limbaugh meant," he said. But after listing off several caricatured aspects of Obama’s economic recovery plan, Pence said, "[Y]ou bet, we want those policies to fail":

SANCHEZ: Did you hear what Rush Limbaugh said, "the dirty little secret is all Republicans want Barack Obama to fail?" Very direct question to you, Sir. Do you want Barack Obama to fail?

PENCE: Come on, Rick. Nice try. I know what Rush Limbaugh meant. … Everyone like me, Rush Limbaugh and others who believe in limited government, who believes in conservative values, wants the policies that this administration is bringing forward, higher taxes, massive increase in government spending, a huge increase in the role of government, in our daily lives, departure from traditional values. You bet, we want those policies to fail. Because, Rick, we know big government, increases in debt, the micromanagement of the economy out of Washington, DC is a policy that will fail.

Later, Sanchez asked Pence, "But if [Limbaugh] said something you disagreed with, would you call him out?" "I call them like I see them. Rush Limbaugh knows that."

Watch it:


Pence’s admission that he — and anyone "who believes in conservative values" — would like to see Obama’s policies fail is a direct contradiction to what House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) said on Sunday. "I don’t think anyone wants anything to fail right now," Cantor told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.


Cantor’s suggestion that Limbaugh was wrong, however, does not appear to have been heartfelt. When contacted today by Greg Sargent, Cantor’s office refused to comment on whether or not the congressman did, in fact, disagree with Limbaugh in hoping for Obama to fail.


Finally, it’s troubling that Pence claims to know what Limbaugh really "meant" when he said "I hope Obama fails." After all, Limbaugh refused to tell Sargent whether or not it would be "a good thing for the country" if Obama’s economic recovery plan were to be a success. It seems that if Senate Republicans haven’t decided they want Obama to fail, House Republicans sure have.