Check your 401k's
 

Well, checked in on the 401k to find it down 29.1%....that's a nice chunk of change that just evaporated into thin air. I'm having my friend that works for a financial institution look into all the funds I can invest in with my 401k & give me some advice to see if I can minimize my losses from here on out. I know this is going to affect some people severely & push back retirement dates....makes me want to lynch all the white collar crooks that shaft us regular Joe's. Although I wish I'd started saving when I was younger, at least I don't have a huge amount invested already, so although my losses suck, I'm sure there are others out there way worse off than I am.

Well if your not going to retire soon when the marker recovers you should have a descent chunk of change. If you think about it now is the time to invest because when stock are low its like they are on sale and you buy them cheap and they go up. So I hope when all of this goes up we will make some $$$$.

I've only had my 401k for a few years, since I was 25, but i guess I'm not really worried since I'm 25+ years from retirement.

Yep 30% drop is about the average Im hearing for 401k loss...Im invensted in mostly stocks but not retiring soon so I will wait it out.

Yea, but I'm already invested in the aggressive funds which took a hit, so in essence, the amount of shares my fund owns won't change, just their value, so maybe they will come back, maybe they won't. That's why I'm asking him, because he knows way more than me, and the guys he works for are brokers. He works at Meryl Lynch....which just got bought out, lol....the financial world is going nuts man!

Unless you plan to retire in 5 years, leave your existing investments alone, they will recover. You guarantee a loss selling low.

If you have free cash, buy buy buy!

I work for the state, i have a separate retirement and a 401K is optional, you make me glad i did not do the 401K.

agreed if you don't need it now don't touch it, same thing happened to my friends dad and he lost 90k, that's a big hit so he is now looking into ira's and although it's only roughly 4% gain a year it's better to have a guarantee of making money then to lose 90k just like that. He was retired and then recently went back to work, fast money has alot of good info

I don't even want to think about how much money I've lost. But if I pull out now the money I lost is gone. If I stay in, the market will turn around eventually and I'll have the option to make my money back.

i would just make sure your money is spread out over the market, they dont have it all in one or two investments people put there whole life saving in one market (enron for example) and when it went so did there money. but like most said it should recover

I am going to put all my future contributions into our 'conservative' fund, while leaving my existing contributions alone....investing for retirement should be for the long term. So yea, we shouldn't be doing any knee-jerk decision making....just bums me out at the domino affect caused by all the deceptive practices. All the fucking moron mortgage companies lending money to people without even getting proof of income....geez, never saw that biting anyone on the ass? :eyes:

It's not a loss until you sell. The market will rebound. Just don't look at it. Change your contributions, but I wouldn't move anything around right now. That's selling low and buying high. Now is the time to buy, not sell.

I must be lucky (or well diversified). I'm only down ~21% year over year.

roth IRA @ age 19.

Wish someone would have taught me about finances & saving at that age. Keep it up!

I'm not too worried about it. I have a 401K but I don't really expect to be able to fully retire anyway. If I do great, if not I won't be suprised. I definately don't expect to get anything out of SS.

Well mine is down 32.5% ... Don't plan to retire soon so i will wait it out...

Mine was down 39% yesterday & then 33% today. Hope it keep snapping back!

its so volatile right now its not worth getting worked up about because you really can't do anything about it. Mine came up 10% from Friday to today. I upped my contribution and will continue to leave it high until things start to stabilize. I keep having people at work come to me about what they need to do w/ their 401k, there is no blanket answer for them, some are older and some are early 20's. I just remind them that if they take it out not only are they down they will get hit w/ fees and taxes.

You only lose money if you sell. It will come back it always does

Well I pull my savings out in 2008 of all my accounts and put them in a safe in my mother house untill my house is done. Mind you the contractor for my house is out of business, But the new one took over and I have to wait alittle longer. My investments are holding and my cd and ira is fine. But I just dont like to hear how banks are running out of money thats why I took mine out.


Oh and I loved the police escort.