Looking at Japan's Stock Market

Ugh, this is the ugliest thing I’ve seen in a while:

Japan’s Long Slump Tests Faith in the Resilience of Stocks

I’ve been continuing to contribute to my 401k, and I still have a fairly aggressive blend of investments there. And with the kind of share prices we’ve fallen to, I’ve been thinking about perhaps even buying a few individual stocks again, a few good dividend-paying blue chips that may be relative bargains right now. But when I see things like that chart, I wonder if my dad was right all along when he seemed to scorn the stock market as being a risky, rigged game that was better avoided in favor of conservative investments. And this is a man who has a real defined-benefit pension– it’s not like he even had to worry about losing all his retirement income!

What’s scary is that some of this isn’t even about the underlying value of the companies. It’s about panic and herd mentality. So far I’ve had the nerve to stay the course and hope I can benefit from the poor choices of others. But at other moments I start thinking “30 years to retirement isn’t going to be enough…”

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