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Hey Sue,

"What are other peoples' approaches as to when they think the market might take a major correction???'

Nothing, actually. Here are a few quotes from several folks that I follow from time to time on the general subject:

“Far more money has been lost by investors preparing for corrections or trying to anticipate corrections, than has ever been lost in corrections themselves.” Peter Lynch

“Successful investors know that bear markets will happen and that they cannot be predicted with a high degree of accuracy.” Larry Swedroe

"Investors find it hard to believe that ignoring the vast majority of investment noise might actually improve investment performance." (quote from Richard Bernstein)

“I’ve said “Stay the course” a thousand times, and I meant it every time. It is the most important single piece of investment wisdom I can give to you.” Jack Bogle, “Common Sense on Mutual Funds

~~~~~

Sit tight and enjoy the view.

Did you ev er consider a variable annuity? With your time frame as stated, you can be an aggressive investor with guarantees. Is it worth a fee to you to know that your income base will double in 10 years even if there is a prolonged bear market?

In spite of what the experts say, variables are selling like mad for the simple guarantees they offer - and are badmouthed by the naysayers.

Dear Sue,

Before you invest another dime or change any of your investments you need to do some homework.

I tried looking up some of your investments, but it is hard to do because there are so many similar fund names within a fund family.

It is much easier to list the ticker symbols for each investment instead of the names.
These may be hard to find for the fact that your broker/investment manager doesn't want you to know them.

Of the funds I looked at, all had a high sales load (I may have been looking at the wrong fund so it is important you know exactly which funds you have).
I am willing to bet your money manager lives in a much nicer neighborhood than you do, as well as a bigger boat, nicer car, ETC...

Please use Yahoo Finance or MSN Money to research your investments.
For every fund you own, you should be able to find an alternative fund that is in a low expense family such as Vanguard, Fidelity, or T. Rowe Price. They will have a fund that matches the same objective as the funds you own in a NO LOAD fund. You need to check the total expenses for any given fund.

You should pay no more than 1.00% for just about any fund. They are out there!!!

A sales load of 5% will cost you about $2,000.00 for every $10,000.00
of your investment in 10 years. That's your money!!!! Don't give it to some slick salesman.

At your age you should be concerned with preservation of your capital with income investments. These won't let you live on the Riviera but they churn out steady income and are reasonably safe.
You still want to a good mix of funds and your current portfolio looks like this is the case just make sure you aren't paying too much in toatal sales charges.

You shouldn't own any individual stocks, at least not a large percentage of your total portfolio. No more than 5% total for all individual stocks. You don't have the time to recover any major setbacks.

Also look at least 5 and better 10 years returns for any given fund to make sure it can weather the turbulance of the market.

Now ETF's shouldn't have any sales load, you should only have to pay a commission like you do when buying and selling an individual stock.
So if you paid any more than a commission that is a concern.

Even though you say you won't have to draw from this portifolio for 10 years or so. Fifty people on this site could tell you different.
We just don't know what the future has in store for each of us.

There is a wealth of info out there. I learned from reading magazines such as Money, Kiplingers, Smart Money, Barron's, the Wall Street Journal. Money magazine is an easy read for neophytes. They give good examples of people of all ages in all walks of life with different investment situations.

Please take responsibility for your investments, it is your hard earned money after all.

I hope this info is useful.

Sincerely, nocrash

Hi there,
I particulary (?) enjoyed nocrash's comments....After all, most " advisors" will ring up heavy sales loads....Why do you think they become successful advisors? I fired my advisor 20 years ago ( friend of my wife's )...Gee, wonder why I haven't heard from her in 20 years? Also fired Fido ( er..Fidelity ) because of their high mgmt fees ( ever notice Father and Abigail Johnson are amongst the richest people in America? )... Vanguard seems to be good, low fees, if you DIY...just my humble opinion. As far as integrity goes, it goes as far as what goes into my pockets, not somebody else's.

Hi Sue,

I don't know who advices you but, whoever he/she is, is not a certified financial planner. If I am wrong maybe you should sue.

At any rate, the obvious problem with your portfolio is that you don't own any bonds. At least, it does not seem obvious that you do (I will not inspect your funds in detail to find out for sure. Just ignore the comment if I am wrong). At your age you should have between 40% and 60% of your portfolio in bonds.

You are a prime candidate to get some advice from Ray Lucia. Look at the first 4 chapters of his book, Buckets of Money.

Good luck,