The Wealth Farmer

I first heard this term from JL Collins in his blog post here.  In his blog post and book, he described the Big Ugly Event happening in 1929, the mother of all stock market crashes that was the beginning of the Great Depression.  Stocks lost 90% of their value during this period.

Is this the big ugly event of our time?  No one knows (I hope not) but it is apt that I start my first post on this blog the day after a crash in the stock markets. 

On 5^th August 2024, the Nikkei index was down 12 per cent, the South Korea’s Kospi index dropped 9 per cent, and the STI closed 4.1 per cent down for the day.  S&P 500 finished 3 per cent down.  Cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum fell more than 20% at one point.

As I sit down to write this blog post, most of the markets have recovered slightly.  What did I do yesterday when it was all happening? These were some of the thoughts that went through my mind:

1. Oh no…I shouldn’t have done my DCA earlier last week!
2. Should I buy more now?
3. I have a bear market buying plan, should I execute it now?
4. But the market seems to be falling further, so maybe I should hold on and not execute my plan.
5. Ok, I am just going to sleep on it.

In the end, I bought some VWRD and ES3 as part of my bear market buying plan and left it as such.

The impact on my Retirement portfolio for the day wasn’t so bad percentage-wise:

Why is that so? I will leave that in another post regarding my asset allocation and how that fits the part of the lifecycle I am in.

This brings me to the reason for starting this blog.  I hope in my writing, I can clear my thoughts and follow the Investment Policy Statement that I have set out regardless of what big crashes or ugly events that are happening like the one yesterday.  Also, reflect on my investment principles and see them being put into practice.  Sometimes, it is better to put things into writing instead of letting it run in my mind.

Please remember that this blog is about my investment journey and everyone’s situation is different.  Feel free to come along with me on this journey but please do not take it as any financial advice from me.

Let’s hope that when The Big Ugly Event of our time comes, I will be ready.