My 401K has me really sick

Same boat, I have lost about 40% in the past few months (ouch), but I am only 42 and have quite a few more years before retirement, I was socking a a lot (22%) away. But, I figured lower to 15% and put the other in CD or something earning 3-4%, better than loosing 20-30% every time I look at it.

Don;'t know, maybe invest in Classics cars, they seem to be increasing a lot more than the economy...

(BTW, I am in Vanguard too!).

" Buy low.....Sell high" In the days of 400-1000 point swings, how long do you think it will take to come back once
momentum swings? The key is to call the bottom, and jump.

So let's say the bottom is 6000, and the dow recovers in 5 years to around 12000 again, isn't 7 - 8000 still a great place to get in? Why wait until it is back at 9 or 10,000 to jump in when you can lower your overall cost? The only reason not to buy now is if you are fairly confident the USA is a goner, and if you believe that, then do as someone suggested, buy guns (big ones) and ammo and hunker down. I understand the apprehension, especially if you are 50 or 60 years old, but the real question we should ask ourselves is what we think the future will bring long term. Again if it is mahem, buy gold and figure out how to store it safely by the ammo.

401K's were created by Congress to give big business a way to put the burden of retirement savings on the working man's back rather than through pension funds. I'm not a liberal and I don't believe it is the responsibility of my employer to give me a pension. But I am beginning to think I would rather have saved using after-tax money in my own guaranteed interest accounts. Yea, yea, I read the comparisons of after-tax vs before-tax and all of it but now its like they have me prisoner of hope. The market may bounce back and history show it will, and history shows it will dive shortly after a short bounce before we reach a bull market again but it's gonna be different this time. Only fools rush in. I'm 47, I don't have 30 years to recoup and I think this market has taught some lessons. I didn't get lazy, always watched, researched my 401K fund investments over the past 25 years but I am almost 4/5's 's the way to 60. I've lost trust in this system.

I have a 1/2 acre yard. Maybe I can plant crops?

The market pretty much tread water from 1966 until the eighties, then had a huge run until the 2000 crash, finally made it up only to bottom again. What a piece of crap for an investment. You buy a worthless "piece of paper" in hopes some poor slob will pay you more for it in the future.

Gold was a good hedge in the past, now with the gold ETF's, they are the first to be sold for margin calls when times are tough so gold is no longer a good hedge. Dollars must be printing 24/7 now to pay off all the debt so don't look to them for a safe haven. Real estate...that's a joke. Commodities are in the tank with no end in sight (unless you talk to Devil ) so don't go there. Whats left??? Beats me, buy ETF's that short the market if you think it will get worse. I will let you know when I do so you will know its safe to go long I have stock in a company that builds and manages prisons and it is doing very well, that's about it.

Right now with 10 years to go or longer everybody should be putting in the max at what their employer will match them. Even if you retire in 10 years you are not simply going to go and remove all your money from your 401k on your very first day of retirement. You will still have money in your 401k working for you and making you money on your investment. The best way to look at it is everything is on sale, and during a sale is the best time to buy. By buying stocks now you are lowering your total cost for the stock purchase prices, which in turn decreases the level you need to be at to make a profit. If it was me I would be investing the max that I could to get as many stocks as I could since it may be another 50 years or so before we see stocks at these prices again.


The worst thing anybody could do is pull all their money out and stop investing for their future. History has shown us that we always recover from these times and it is very likely we will go even lower before we start to recover. Since none of us truly know what or when it will happen the only thing we can do is to look at our history to see our future.

Just another thought here. Even if you think that the market will go back up what do you think prices will do the next time around. The only thing that has come down is gasoline at the pumps and thats not even down as much as wholesale prices have fallen. Commodities have not fallen at all. So when the market does climb back as you say prices will really climb and the whole Pyramid scheme gets another boost. You can't make money with out somebody paying more some where. (Have you noticed the size of your toilet paper roll, it's not that the roll has less paper on it in sheets but if you notice it is a lot shorter when you put it on the holder. The sizes of everything has gotten smaller, you would think that since everything has supposable gotten cheaper that the size would at least go back up) I'm out and staying out. Just look at who are the only ones that are making money on the market right now and who are loosing, same as always. The people that can afford it the least are the ones loosing the most. Why is it always the way.

How many people pumped money into their 401's and then forgot about it. Did they rebalance their portolios every 4-6 months? Did they do any research? Did they try to follow the market? Were they over weighted in securities because of greed? Did they rely on money managers? i put a lot of blame on investors for riding the market down so low. If anyone doesn't understand the market or what their investing in then they should find another growth vehicle for their money.

Fred: It really sucks. If our government had leaders that could manage our resources, people and institutions we would have the wealth in this country so that your wife wouldn't have lost a majority of her retirement. Lets hope that SS stays viable. I have an 86 year old mom and she relies on it for income. It could always be worse. My friend was just diagnosed with cancer. Money can be made and lost but your health and happiness are invaluable.

I'm fairly young and don't have a lot invested at the moment, we did start a 529 for my 2 yo daughter and lost some money in that and a few other things, but I have a long way to retirement if there is a retirement in the future. Anyway, most seem fairly confident that the economy will bounce back, stocks will go up and everything will be great again. What I see right now is that our government is pumping out money on their printers to pay for these bailouts, while our global debt deepens. If/when the wall st./stock market bounces back, will it really matter if our dollar isn't worth anything? All of this is very confusing to me, but seems that at some point our government will be more then beyond payable debt what so ever, to the point that we're essentially bankrupt. Anyway, I'll cling to God and guns and see what happens.

paridgerunner wrote: Anyway, I'll cling to God and guns and see what happens.

Me too my friend.................me too

traderfjp wrote:How many people pumped money into their 401's and then forgot about it. Did they rebalance their portolios every 4-6 months? Did they do any research? Did they try to follow the market? Were they over weighted in securities because of greed?

At age 45 individuals were advised to be 65%-70% equities. 30% bonds in retirement accounts. And this is the conservative advice. I was 68% equities until 2 months ago, now I am 50/50. But even the total return type of fund ( mainly bonds ) has lost money. At least the Pimco Total Return fund. I realize some folks just dump into the 401's and load up on equities but I ain't one of them. And they don't follow them or rebalance. But the old way of thinking was, just put money in and don't look at it. Rebalance once a year. I heard and read it many times over.

I believe now that we were told what was good for the business and not good for us as individuals and families. The old school ( ain't that old really ) was to pay as much before-tax as you could afford and go 70%-80% for folks 45 & under.

But many of those who responded here said they were still buying. Yet the market is still crashing. Something ain't right. The worse is yet to come. When the middle class starts running out of money, there is going to be a riot on Wall Street

traderfjp wrote:Lets hope that SS stays viable. I have an 86 year old mom and she relies on it for income.

Remember when Bush and the Republican controlled Congress wanted to privatized Social Security? Still think it was a good idea?

lincolnmania wrote:glad i never put any money away
at this point you are better off buying ammo and canning supplies and plan on a big garden next yr

Ha! I knew there were more smart thinkers on this site like me! For you guys with tanked 401k plans, remember unless you sell you didn't lose anything, just the numbers on the paper are lower temporarily, that's all. I have about $400 in savings so I don't worry too much about it.