In it for the long haul? Buy!

In the last week and a half, the stock market has been disturbingly volatile. On Monday morning, all the stocks in my watch list had positive gains through the early afternoon. But, by day’s end, each stock had completely turned around and showed losses for the day… whoa! Literally, my screen went from green to red in a matter of hours.

For a moment, I did freak out. Thoughts of another Great Depression or Dot Com Bust entered my mind. My fears were further fueled by other PF bloggers that expressed similar feelings about the market. Dahhhh!

Fortunately, my concerns subsided by reminding myself that I am investing for the long term… and not to make a quick buck. With all the media surrounding poor market performance recently, several stocks look like a bargain right now. And, over time, I believe the value of many good companies who are trading at a bargain will increase substantially.

So, with some self reassurance, I invested more money yesterday!

I bought several shares of American International Group (AIG) at $63 per share. I think this was a bargain! AIG is an insurance company (Warren Buffet style) with operations throughout the world. They were recently approved to launch plans in China… which should help the company’s growth. If no hurricanes or major catastrophes occur this year, AIG should do well in the next 12 months. Otherwise, I think this is a solid pick for the next 3 to 5 years.

My portfolio is now composed of 50% Walgreens (WAG) and 50% AIG. Walgreens was having a great run last week, but has since dropped a few points this week. It sucks, but I still think this was a solid buy for me. Also, I am still in the process of slowly, but surely, diversifying my portfolio. I anticipate another purchase at the end of this month.

Remember, long haul! haha.