Jesus Christ my %#*&!! 401K won't stop plummeting

[mreilly]

Every time I check my account it's down even more than last time. It's lost 75% of its value by now. Soon the balance will just be $0. Zero dollars, zero cents. No, scratch that - it'll be in the negative numbers and I'll owe money on it because the value of the account is completely worthless. I should just cash it in right now, take the abuse and penalties, and put the bucket of pennies I have left in the shed.

Fucking, fucking economy. And still the Republiturds are acting like they had nothing to do with it and they actually deserve a voice anywhere outside of a clown college.

[Midlodemocrat]

1. Can you move it the money around at all?

We moved ours out of stocks into bonds/money market until the bleeding stops.

[no name no slogan]

2. Unless you're retiring in the next five years, you're better off not watching it

Everybody's accounts are off right now. I'm down over 50%, and considering I've been saving for retirement for the past 20 years, that's a decent chunk of change.

All that gain was mostly on paper, anyway. You don't realize any loss/gain until you sell the assets. And if you don't need to spend that money within the next five years, you're better off letting it stay where it is and waiting for it to come back.

And it will come back, eventually. It may take five years, but it will eventually get back to where it was.

[RebelOne]

3. I closed out my 401K and put the money in

my savings account for the time being. Fortunately, I am of the age where I didn't have to pay any penalty.

[datasuspect]

4. the lottery has better returns

[wartrace]

5. What funds are you in?

Mine has shown some signs of life lately but its still down 38% from its peak. I was down at 50% until recently.

[Nickster]

6. I moved everything to the bond funds awhile ago. It stopped the bleeding, the growth has only been

less than a half of a percent a month, but it's not negative. Considering the match that my employer is still giving us, I'm gaining some ground, although they just shaved a percentage off of that as well.

[haele]

7. Damn, you shouldn't be losing any of your own money in this...

Is what you're losing the interest, or the actual money you and your company have been putting in?

We have Vanguard for our 401K, and most of our loss has been in the interest rather than in any money we put in. I've only seen about a 12% loss in total 401K value so far, and the company stock has performed pretty much even, no loss, even if there's no gain - so if the market doesn't drop any more and gains at a normal rate rather than at bubble, we should end up pretty decent between the stocks and bonds when things start to recover - especially since the account fund shares that have shown the greatest "loss" have been increasing at a greater percentage than they were a year ago, pretty much 1.5 for 1 compared to last year. Since these are also my long-term funds ("Retirement 2025 account"), I'm not so worried.

At this point, hold on if you can - my folks went through this with dad's 401K in the early 90's. If your 401K is still "buying" shares and your company is still matching, you should be able to see a recovery of your loss over the next 5 - 7 years, and possibly end up in a better position when this is all over.

And I hope whomever you have your 401K with is actually concerned about their customers and reputation...which might be the problem you are having.

Haele

[SPKrazy]

8. move it into safer investments or savings if you're fearful the market is going to crash

or stick it out for the long haul.

Me, I don't hold out much hope for the short haul, but in the long haul I'm gonna have enough to retire I think early. Or that's what I tell myself. Since social security won't exist, that's a good thing.

:D

[quakerboy]

9. Hmm

How is invested? I have some sort of IRA, and While the money value has gone down, my number of shares has actually risen despite a complete lack of any payments in in the last year.

I figure, if the economy keeps falling until I retire, we's all fucked anyway so whatever and Canada here I come. And if not, I guess it will be back by the time I need it.