I have been investing since 1974. I can understand your emotion even though I don't share it. In the 80's a co-worker (who had more invested than I did) and I would frequently talk about investing. In the mid-80's when the market was rising, he would nod his head approvingly but never failed to say "It's great now, but one day it will all come crashing down." In '87 neither he nor I sold anything but continued to add to our holdings regularly. He then replaced his certain doom & gloom prediction with "I hope it goes back up." He had been sure the market would crash but not nearly as confident that it would rise again.TheTimeLord wrote: ↑Thu Nov 30, 2017 11:56 am I think my emotion is far more easily understood by those who were actively investing in 1987 and 2000 than those without that experience. Having those experiences doesn't necessarily make me a better investor it just adds to the the experiences that try to influence my behavior. Add to that I have always been a "Wall of Worry" investor and you can start to see where I am coming from even if you totally disagree. I have a very detailed plan that lays out my asset allocations every X dollar increment from where I am to levels I never expect to reach. So as long as I allow my plan discipline to overrule my emotions I should be fine no matter what that market does, but that still doesn't ease the feelings, it just prevents the feelings from becoming mistakes.
I lost touch with him shortly after that, but I am certain that if he is still alive he is still saying that "One day it will all come crashing down" while continuing to invest. I have wondered if he might even be on this forum. The thing I never could quite reconcile was that his investing behavior was practically set in stone, but he seemed to be making himself miserable by worrying continuously about things beyond his control even though he knew rises and falls are the nature of the beast.