Dare to check your 401K lately??

[vulcancowboy]

So far, mine are down about $50K.

[07Ninja250]

I've been to scared to look. But I should get in there and move everything to the low-risk side

[Michael600r]

Nope, in it for the long haul. I know it's down, so why look? The market will rebound soon enough. I won't be retiring for another 20 years.

[SilverEagle]

I have another 30 years before I can retire, I moved all my high risk to very conservative funds before the craze started. Mine will go down....just not as radical as if I remained in high risk areas like real estate and natural resources fund.

[Jake '53]

Haven't checked since sometime in June. Not planning to start unloading for another 10 years.

[Spok]

I'm down close to 25%

[nomidlname]

I'm down 20k and moved my funds from moderate risk to a no risk fixed fund account that pays a measly 1 to 3%. Better than continously losing money. I'll move it back when the markets start to recover. I don't care if I lose the chance at catching a 17% return... I just want to stop bleeding money.

[Tod]

Mine is fairly well diversified, and it's still down over 20%.

*sigh* What can ya do eh?

[alstensby]

Neither of us get a match so we don't bother with the 401K. Doesn't offer any benefit to us. Thankfully, our retirement has continued to grow, albeit at a slower rate.

[Saleenguy]

Many years ago on top of mutual funds etc. I acquired a bunch of stock in petro canada.

OMG has that tanked as of late.

Had I dumped it just 2 months ago it was worth about $372,000....now its a measly $146,820 as of this morning.

[cmptrmn.1]

Guess I should consider myself lucky. Only down about 1% this last quarter.

[Seadog1967]

As of the beginning of June I was down 10% could see the handwriting on the wall so pull it and put it in CD's. Not the big gains I made in the past but I'd rather a little gain than a loss. If I had 10-20 yrs till retirement I would of done different probably but being a little shy of 62 I can't take the chance. We get on the road to recovery and looks like we'll be back gaining then maybe I'll move some back.

[Cruz]

I don't want to look, I'm just going to ride it out at this point.
The price per share has fallen that much I know, if I move the money now and buy shares of something else, I'll end up with fewer shares then I have now. So my best bet is to stick with the statuesque and don't look.......

[tricker]

my 403b hardly has anything in it.. so instead of losing a crap ton.. i'm still stuck with crap on baltic

[Upi]

From what I hear, no matter how diversified you are you are going to lose a ton. Since I won't need my money in the next 5 years or so, I'm leaving it alone, once the market bottoms out I will have that much more to invest with for the long haul.

Down 9.5k as of this morning =-(

[Idaho]

Where is the poor boys motorcycle forum at...lol. 401K, house, savings account...I wish. But I still have a lot to be thankful for. Old enough to retire but still healthy enough to work thankfully. Enjoy your money.

[CTRider]

Originally Posted by Michael600r

Nope, in it for the long haul. I know it's down, so why look? The market will rebound soon enough. I won't be retiring for another 20 years.

Exactly.

For those not looking to retire anytime soon, this is actually a good thing. The share price will drop and you'll get more of them for your dollar. When the market perks back up, you'll be in even better shape. If the fund was riding high all the time, you'd get very little for your investment dollar.

The only reason to worry is if you are retiring within 5 years. In that case, if you haven't done anything already with the money, you're screwed, so you may as well leave it be to avoid capital gains from pulling it out come tax time.

[mrblanche]

Sure. And I've been buying all the way down.

Look at it this way. Sam Walton was asked in 1987, the day after the big drop, how he felt about being only 1/2 as rich as he was the day before.

"What do you mean?" he asked. "Every store I owned yesterday, I have today. Every warehouse I had yesterday, I have today. Every truck I had yesterday, I have today. Every employee I had yesterday, I have today. The loss was only paper, just as the gain before that was only paper. It will all come back."

I had an acquaintance who invested every penny he had available on that day in Wal-Mart. He kept buying all day. Five years later, the stock had regained enough to split, split and again, and double almost enough to split again. He made enough from his buys that day to be able to retire almost 5 years earlier than he thought he could, before that black day in October of 1987.

There is some great bottom-fishing available. You (and I) might lose it all, but the odds are good that we'll be slapping ourselves on the back 5 years from now.

[nomidlname]

We got a guy in our office that turns 65 in December. He wasn't planing on retiring quite yet but was thinking about "thinking" of retiring. If that makes any sense. Sadly, due to this debacle, he is no longer thinking about thinking of retiring. There is simply no way now... maybe when he's 70 and he combines it with Social Security... If he lives that long

[Saleenguy]

Originally Posted by Cruz

I don't want to look, I'm just going to ride it out at this point.
The price per share has fallen that much I know, if I move the money now and buy shares of something else, I'll end up with fewer shares then I have now. So my best bet is to stick with the statuesque and don't look.......

I have not looked at my Mutual funds....I would likely have a heart attack....good thing i am young enough to not worry about retiring soon.

Although it would be nice.