Who Fat-Fingered Your Life Savings Away? (DIY retirement investing vs. stock market)

And in financial news from earlier this merry merry month of May, Fox news reported:

“A computerized selloff possibly caused by a simple typographical error triggered one of the most turbulent days in Wall Street history Thursday and sent the Dow Jones industrials to a loss of almost 1,000 points, nearly a tenth of their value, in less than half an hour. It was the biggest drop ever during a trading day.”

The biggest drop ever thanks to one fat finger.

You may consider this old news (2 weeks ago is old news now), but the stock market is still where 98% of America’s retirement dollars precariously reside, so until either the amount of cash or the amount of precariousness changes, this news won’t get old.

Some dude fat-fingered my life savings away.

Let’s backtrack for a moment. Fat-finger: When a typist mistakenly types a wrong or additional keystroke, thereby taking down the world’s financial markets.

Okay, that last part was my own extrapolation. Anyone who works or plays on computers knows how easy fat-fingering is. Whether your fingers are, in reality, quite lithe, is irrelevant. The fact is, mistakes happen. Fat-fingering happens.

It happens so often, we have internet memes and cliches based on fat-fingering. Who hasn’t typed teh when they meant to type the?

But when your retirement money is self-directed, YOU can catch the fat-fingering on a contract or other document. YOU decide whether to spend YOUR retirement money on whatever YOU choose in whatever amount YOU choose. YOU tell us if, when, and how you want to invest in your real estate IRA investment or your HSA gold investment or your whatever alternative investment. We do what YOU tell us. You are not dependent on a stranger a thousand miles away who doesn’t care (or know) as much as you do. You only rely on YOURSELF.

Even though this specific day’s disastrous plunge was supposedly not a fat finger, according to the SEC, this is a realistic, even likely possibility. People make mistakes, and in this era of huge numbers and speed-of-light transactions, wouldn’t you rather make your own mistakes, with pen and paper? I know I would.

This most recent stock market plunge is yet another reason why I’m glad I have my retirement money in a real estate IRA investment and a gold investment. Find out how to move your retirement money to a self-directed retirement account and start making your own success (and your own mistakes). And please, if friends or family are still under the shadow of a potential fat-finger disaster, let them know they have another option. DIY retirement investing is around the corner.