I've lost about 35% of my retirement funds. Thank you, George Bush

[Bucky]

I hear poverty is character building. I'll let yall in on my character in a few years.

[Uben]

1. Don't feel too bad........

....I lost 60%, about $250K.

[GoesTo11]

5. Oh does that suck

We all feel pretty bad about the things we won't be able to do because we can't afford to retire.

Why aren't any of these AIG / Goldman Sachs / SEC / Citigroup / Lehman / Merrill / ... types going to jail? Where are the mobs of us with pitchforks?

[Uben]

7. I've been retired for 9 yrs

...and, I do not live off of that money. I have other investments, thank god! I'm only 54, so I have time to let it recover....if it does.

[GoesTo11]

10. Good for you. At least deserves a stiff drink.

Myself, I was planning to retire at 65 or 66 (a while yet), and now according to my spreadsheets, I might make that somewhere between 67 and 72. Basically, if I had seen this coming and put my money in CDs or something last year, I would have three fewer years to retirement. (Actually, if I had seen this coming, I suppose I would have bought put options and made a fortune, but I just assume I don't know this game and put $ in index funds). Or maybe it'll turn around under Obama and we won't have to delay retirement. I guess you just deal with what life gives you. My retirement plan, such as it is, is to have job security and work I enjoy reasonably well so I can spend those extra years working without it being a problem. I joke about this with friends at work - our retirement plan is to keep each other company in the office.

[Turbineguy]

2. Welcome to the Club!

Unfortunately, it's not very exclusive, and in fact most Members would rather not belong!

[petronius]

3. Sure, but you wouldn't have had that much in the first place if not for the huge

economic boom engineered by Bush's policies, right? Or am I thinking about that previous president? ;)

[GoesTo11]

12. For anyone up to the age of 45 or so, real lifetime returns are negative

If you had started diligently dollar cost averaging into the S&P 500 index in 1994, always putting in the max, a constant percent of your salary growing at a little above inflation, you would have close to 0% net return on your investments as you go over life's hump. Like sticking the money in a mattress. But you would be negative in real inflation-adjusted return.

401k culture - just a lie.

[el_bryanto]

4. I lost between 30 and 40% myself.

It's crummy. Thank God their plan to privatize social security didn't go through.

Bryant

[Belial]

6. ugh.. I dont even open my statements anymore.. sigh

[Maine-ah]

8. I don't even have one.

x(

every time we get in a position to get one going, shit happens and it gets put off.

[OwnedByFerrets]

9. Ive lost a similiar amount, but we must all realize that WE HAVE

BEEN DOING NOTHING MORE THAN GAMBLING WITH OUR MONEY. Thats what happens when you gamble. You sometimes lose. If we are patient, it may come back and we might be winners again, but its all a huge gamble.

[zagging]

11. The largest casino in the world

More people should realize that.

[izquierdista]

13. What's even worse

That money has gone into building PRIVATE wealth, not public. All of it churns around in 201k's (as my friend refers to what used to be his 401k), stocks of PRIVATE companies and PRIVATELY run mutual funds. Very little has gone into libraries, public hospitals and clinics, schools, and public transportation. There are some projects that increase the public wealth, like roads, but that is only motivated by the huge investment that Americans have made into private cars as their primary mode of transportation.

I could feel much more secure with little personal, private wealth, if America had made a bigger investment into PUBLIC wealth.

[lamp_shade]

14. Over 60% here.

:cry:

:grr: