I've been investing my money in ETF's for well over 5 years now and during that time I saw a couple of big 'dips' in the value of my portfolio. In most cases corrections on the stock market caused this sudden drop in the value of my investments. Each time I saw my portfolio drop by 4-5% and the value lowered by approximately €15.000. A pretty big chunk of money.
First time was in September 2015. Actually it was on my birthday in late August. Up until then I saw my investments grow steadily and that made me feel quite comfortable. I knew that someday I had to encounter a 'dip' and then there was a correction on the stock markets. My investments dropped several percentages and I saw the value of my portfolio go down rapidly. Not a great thing to see happen, but in my mind I remembered that eventually the stock market would go up again. In this case it went up within months. Only to see it drop again in January 2016 because of yet another correction on the stock markets. But a few months later I was back on course. I survived my first 'big dips', both financially as well as mentally (also very important). In the back of mind, however, I knew that this would not be the last time I would suffer a sudden drop in the value of my investments. I also knew that someday I would have to take an even greater hit that would really test my nerves.
Investing in ETF's is a long term plan so checking the status of your portfolio is pretty useless, but I do it anyway. Simply because it interests me to see what my portfolio is doing. So yesterday I was comfortably at home checking my investment status. I knew my portfolio had gone down lately, but what I saw last night was a bit of a shock. I saw my portfolio had gone down by nearly 6% in one day. The biggest 'loss' I endured so far. Then again, the value of my portfolio is much larger then it was in 2015 and the more money you have invested the greater the losses are when it drops.
It was a bit of a bummer to see my portfolio drop this much so fast, but I have to remember I'm in it for the long term. It is important that I do not chicken out and sell my stocks. As a matter of fact, this is the perfect time to invest more. Stock are on sale now!
Just keep calm and stick to the plan. I'm still in the green. In 2015 the value of my portfolio dropped thousends of Euro's below the amount of money I had invested.
Add new comment