How to prevent market swings from making my “real” money feel meaningless?
I am currently 29 and I make good money in a relatively low cost of living area. I have been struggling with a problem that I am sure I’m not the first to have, and wanted to get any insight from others who have experienced this.
I have about ~$350k invested, mostly in retirement accounts. A vast majority of that is in index funds, but I made a few (very lucky) trades on individual stocks, namely Nvidia and Rocketlab, each with 2000+% returns and all in my Roth IRA. I have mostly diversified out of them, but I still hold a fair amout of RKLB. On a good day, my account will increase (on paper) multiple thousands of dollars. Likewise, on a bad day it will decrease thousands of dollars. In my mind, this is fake, untouchable money that I’ll see someday, but not for many years. It’s just a number on a screen.
But that volatility has sort of made real money lose meaning. What is $300 on a new putter? What is $200 on a nice dinner? My account may fluctuate that much in a few hours, so who cares? I know this line of thinking is not great, and it’s what I’m trying to put an end to.
For background, I have been diligent about automating my investments and currently put away $4k per month, plus a lump sum of whatever extra I may have every few months, and have done this for many years. I know I’m in a fortunate position and I’m grateful to be where I’m at. Any advice from anyone who has gone through something similar?