Stock Market Fluctuations

The stock market had a nice gain today and pushed the stock market to its highest level since 2000 which is the year that Bush was elected.  It's been a hard, bumpy, and scary ride  but to be honest when the year 2000 was here I was $32,000 in debt and homeless.  Since then I have paid off my debt and now own my home, have some investment property in the mountains, a nice retirement account, and a good life, especially since I'm retired and doing what I love to do. 

Sometimes I do get worried when I see the market take a big dump, especially when a slump lasts several days.  It brings back bad memories and since I'm retired I no longer have the money to buy more stocks at the deflated price so a falling market won't recover as quickly for me as the last downturn did. 

I hope I made myself clear but in case anyone doesn't understand I'll illustrate.  Let's say I have 1,000 shares worth $10.00 a share and I buy 10 shares a week.  If the stock falls $5.00 a share in value I can then purchase 20 shares a week.  Let's say that after 6 months the market recovers and shares are now work $10.00 each, I would make a nice profit as I would have accumulated 520 shares instead of 260.  If prices had remained constant my stock would have been worth  $12600 but because I was able to purchase additional shares at the lower price my stock is now valued at $15600.  Now that I'm retired my stock would still be only worth the original $10,000. 

That is why I'm happy since the market increase has helped me a lot.  I had to withdraw $8000.00 to reduce my debt so I could have enough income to cover my outgo.  But instead of being worth $8000.00 les my stock is only worth $2,000.00 less, meaning I've made $6,000 in interest and market increases. 

I just hope in continues.