NYT: Older Investors Jittery As U.S. Markets Disappoint

[DeepModem Mom]

MARKET PLACE
Older Investors Jittery as U.S. Markets Disappoint
By GRETCHEN MORGENSON and JENNIFER BAYOT

Published: August 24, 2004


...."Last year's rally was a junk rally that proved that greed was not dead," said Christopher T. Casey, portfolio manager at Boston Private Bank and Trust. "What you're seeing now is greed may not be dead but it's limping." Individual investors certainly began this year with high hopes. In January, two-thirds of the 800 investors surveyed by UBS said that they felt somewhat or very optimistic about where stocks would be in 12 months. UBS said it was the highest level of investor optimism since January 2000, the height of the stock market mania. Even now, with the market well off its highs for the year, the chasm between what investors seem to be expecting from the stock market and what they will probably receive remains wide. An astonishing 18 percent of investors polled in August said they expected to generate profits of 10 percent to 14 percent in their portfolios over the next 12 months, while 28 percent said they expected to generate gains of 5 percent to 9 percent....

***

In the meantime, strategists like Mr. Casey expect the market to tread water for some time to come, predicting that stock prices will remain flat for a couple of years even as earnings rise.

Investors' retirement accounts are especially vulnerable to a drifting stock market. According to a study by the Employee Benefit Research Institute of 401(k) plan activity among 4.5 million participants, 67 percent of the assets invested in such plans went into stocks last year, up from 62 percent in 2002. In 2000, at the height of the stock market bubble, equities made up three-quarters of the assets held in 401(k) plans.

While younger investors can shrug off the lackluster performance in the stock market as something to fret about tomorrow, older investors cannot. For those nearest retirement and closest to tapping into their funds, time is running out on their efforts to rebuild accounts that were devastated by the bear market of recent years....


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/24/business/24place.html?hp

[xchrom]

1. this article is not in keeping w/ bushco &

an ''ownership society''!
you musn't rock the boat baby with facts!

[sendero]

2. Anyone who is within 5 years...

... of retirement age who still has substantial assets tied up in the stock market is one taco short of a combination platter.

If you are near retirement, you are supposed to move your money to less risky investments. Sounds like the "casino mentality" of the stock market is alive and well, and we all know that the house almost always wins.

[Sugarbleus]

4. Well stated..........

LOL----->one taco short of a combination platter.

[Wright Patman]

3. The 'solution'

is to assume everyone will live to be 120 and establish the new retirement age at around 100. That way, these investors can consider themselves "young" again, even if they can't find jobs anymore.

[Jack from Charlotte]

5. Here' a chart on the stock market under every president since '45

So going back 49 years, there's only one president who's had the stock market lower than when he took office. That is, of course our current AWOL/moron who's under by about 20%.

And anyone with a 401K is effected.

This is just another stat this isn't being publicized.

Presidents And The Stock Market
President Term Economic Rank S&P 500 Start Of Term S&P 500 End Of Term S&P 500 Annualized Total Return (%) Stock Market Rank
Bill Clinton 1993-2001 1 433.37 1,342.54 17.4% 1
Gerald R. Ford August 1974-1977 5 86.02 102.97 17 2
Harry S. Truman April 1945-1953 7 13.64 26.57 15.6 3
Dwight D. Eisenhower 1953-1961 9 26.57 58.11 14.9 4
Ronald Reagan 1981-1989 4 131.65 286.63 14.4 5
George H. W. Bush 1989-1993 10 286.63 433.37 14.4 5
John F. Kennedy 1961- November1963 3 58.11 74.01 12.4 7
Jimmy Carter 1977-1981 6 102.97 131.65 11.2 8
Lyndon B. Johnson November 1963-1969 2 74.01 103.86 10.2 9
Richard M. Nixon 1969-August 1974 8 103.86 86.02 0.6 10
Source: Forbes statistics