MAGAZINE - USAA

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12 USAA MAGAZINE WINTER 2008 USAA.COM
COMMON SENSE FOR UNCOMMON TIMES BY JOHN GILLIAM In a year of unprecedented financial crises, get USAA’s perspective before you make your next move This summer, before the bear market and credit crisis morphed into a global financial meltdown, I wrote an article about my terrible decisions in the 2000-2002 bear market. Back then, I rode the market down and threw in the towel with a 50 percent loss — just as the market was bottoming. Then I sat in cash for two years into the next bull market before getting back into stocks. It was a classic, portfoliodecimating case of buy high, sell low and then buy high again. Embarrassed I’d behaved so emotionally, I put most of my retirement assets into a conservative, professionally managed portfolio and promised myself I’d leave it alone. Then came the deluge of once-unimaginable news: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, AIG, Washington Mutual, Wachovia — an incredible list of proud American financial institutions — either went under or were taken over. And the Dow kept plummeting, with no end in sight. With my portfolio down more than 30 percent in one year and still falling, my promise to “leave it alone no matter what” seemed quaint. Had the investing fundamentals underpinning my philosophy collapsed? Was it time to get out of the markets once and for all? Like every investor in America, I was scared, angry and confused. USAA.COM WINTER 2008 USAA MAGAZINE 13
Page 1 and 2: USAA.COM WINTER 2008 MAGAZINE A MEM
Page 3 and 4: MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT WE’VE
Page 5 and 6: Financial news mobile.usaa.com Head
Page 7 and 8: F Drawing it out An Air Force wife
Page 9 and 10: MORE THAN SENTIMENTAL VALUE PROTECT
Page 11: CTA HEAD My husband keeps CTA takin
Page 15 and 16: about capitalism and the capital ma
Page 17 and 18: PREP Sure, taxes are the last thing
Page 19 and 20: USE COMMON SENSE AND A LITTLE KNOW-
Page 21 and 22: ALL IN THE FAMILY It may not be eas
Page 23 and 24: transferring outstanding balances t
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Page 27 and 28: RETIREMENT security you deserve ann
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Page 32: member snapshot PHOTOGRAPH BY ISSOU

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