damn I lost money in my 401k

[Maverick]

Good thing I only put $400 in it Lost about $15.

I've only been contributing for 4 months. Percentage wise I lost 3.75%...is it just a sign of the times or did I seriously invest in the wrong fund?

 

[Beau]

welcome to the club.

 

[pyonir]

close to everyone's 401k is down. my dad lost like 30k last year.

 

[isasir]

I lost about $300 last year. I'm young (24), so most of my investments were in aggressive and dynamic funds.

 

[SlowSS]

Originally posted by: Shiva112
Good thing I only put $400 in it Lost about $15.

I've only been contributing for 4 months. Percentage wise I lost 3.75%...is it just a sign of the times or did I seriously invest in the wrong fund?

Yeah, it sucks.

My company matches dollar for dollar up to 8% of my salary and I believe I lost all of the company matching money.
Oh well, at least I still have my contributions intact.

 

[Maverick]

ok that makes me feel better knowing everyone is down. I feel bad for my parents though...my dad's gonna reach retirement age soon. He's even afraid of a forced "early retirement"

 

[ggavinmoss]

Originally posted by: Shiva112
Good thing I only put $400 in it Lost about $15.

I've only been contributing for 4 months. Percentage wise I lost 3.75%...is it just a sign of the times or did I seriously invest in the wrong fund?

You're "down" but you haven't "lost" money unless you sold.

Give it a few decades.

-geoff

 

[cjchaps]

I'm up about 6% for the past few months. The bond fund is where it's at. Your 401k is something you don't want to try and be aggressive with during a shakey market. I recommend playing it safe for the time being.

 

[Maverick]

Originally posted by: cjchaps
I'm up about 6% for the past few months. The bond fund is where it's at. Your 401k is something you don't want to try and be aggressive with during a shakey market. I recommend playing it safe for the time being.

I went for the safest one and I'm still down

 

[Parrotheader]

Originally posted by: pyonir
close to everyone's 401k is down. my dad lost like 30k last year.

I actually posted a 1% gain since I went with some conservative and overseas funds. *flexes* Fear my 4 figure 401K savings . . . of course I'm only 27 so I've still got a LONG way to go.

My dad works for a major utility company and their 401k plan involves company stock. They've been kicking butt ever since the economy slowed down. Between that and his bonus (which was more than my salary :| ) he made out like a bandit last year.

 

[pyonir]

Originally posted by: Parrotheader

Originally posted by: pyonir
close to everyone's 401k is down. my dad lost like 30k last year.

I actually posted a 1% gain since I went with some conservative and overseas funds. *flexes* Fear my 4 figure 401K savings . . . of course I'm only 27 so I've still got a LONG way to go.

My dad works for a major utility company and their 401k plan involves company stock. They've been kicking butt ever since the economy slowed down. Between that and his bonus (which was more than my salary :| ) he made out like a bandit last year.

precisely why i said 'close'

 

[tarheelmm]

I have lost about $15K in the last two years. Good thing its only money

 

[SP33Demon]

I'm up $5, switched 90% over to bond funds and left 10% in stocks about 6 months ago when the bears really started to show... If u don't want to lose money, I would suggest temporarily switching over to bonds...

Rob

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: SP33Demon
I'm up $5, switched 90% over to bond funds and left 10% in stocks about 6 months ago when the bears really started to show... If u don't want to lose money, I would suggest temporarily switching over to bonds...

Rob

Or buy stock funds now while they're down instead of waiting until after they bounce up to start buying again. In other words "buy low sell high."

Also, remember your 401k contributions are reducing your tax bill -- if you're full-time you're getting an instant 20-30% gain in your 401k from tax savings. So if it's down 5% that's nothing to worry about, you're still way ahead.

 

[Jzero]

You're "down" but you haven't "lost" money unless you sold.

Give it a few decades.

-geoff

Yep. The way I see it is the lower it goes while I'm still in my twenties, the more shares I'll have to go up hopefully when I'm in my 50s.

 

[Doggiedog]

Lost over $30K in the last couple years too but that's nothing compared to my trading account since '00.

 

[cjchaps]

Buying low only helps if the funs go up past the point where you bought them from. If you can tell me exactly when I need to buy them, you can be my new best friend.

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons

Originally posted by: SP33Demon
I'm up $5, switched 90% over to bond funds and left 10% in stocks about 6 months ago when the bears really started to show... If u don't want to lose money, I would suggest temporarily switching over to bonds...

Rob

Or buy stock funds now while they're down instead of waiting until after they bounce up to start buying again. In other words "buy low sell high."

Also, remember your 401k contributions are reducing your tax bill -- if you're full-time you're getting an instant 20-30% gain in your 401k from tax savings. So if it's down 5% that's nothing to worry about, you're still way ahead.

 

[weezergirl]

just wondering but how much of your salary do you guys normally put into your 401K? i just started working and let my uncle who is good with money handle all my finances...and i know nothing about this stuff...hehe.

 

[Jombo]

your min should be at least what the company matches, it's free money, or so they say.

as for my 401k, as of few months ago, it no longer exists, lost my shirt on it, cuz my company went bankrupt and laid me off.. but it's better than one of the techs at my company. he had a half a mil in valuations when the stock was at $60 just 2.5 years ago now, he can't retire because he has no money to retire on... really really sad at least i got my youth.. sort of

so yer lucky to have only lost a few dollars.. you have to wait till yer 60 something anyway, and i'm sure the market will bounce back sometime before that. funniest thing is watching people day trade w/ their 401k

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: Jombo
your min should be at least what the company matches, it's free money, or so they say.

as for my 401k, as of few months ago, it no longer exists, lost my shirt on it, cuz my company went bankrupt and laid me off.. but it's better than one of the techs at my company. he had a half a mil in valuations when the stock was at $60 just 2.5 years ago now, he can't retire because he has no money to retire on... really really sad at least i got my youth.. sort of

so yer lucky to have only lost a few dollars.. you have to wait till yer 60 something anyway, and i'm sure the market will bounce back sometime before that. funniest thing is watching people day trade w/ their 401k

Sounds like all the folks at enron who had all of their money in company stock -- a really, really stupid thing to do even if the company offers a discount. Any book or advisor will tell you to never have all your retirement funds in just one stock.

But it's like backups, most people don't want to learn about them or make the effort until after their first hard drive crash or catastrophic virus infection.

 

[RossMAN]

Originally posted by: weezergirl
just wondering but how much of your salary do you guys normally put into your 401K? i just started working and let my uncle who is good with money handle all my finances...and i know nothing about this stuff...hehe.

Good questions.

Your uncle first needs to know a few things from his employer such as:
1) How long does he have to work at the company until he can contribute to his 401k?
2) How long until he is 100% vested (my company takes 7 LONG YEARS!!!)?
3) Does his employer match his contributions? If so, what % does the employer match?
4) What is the maximum your Uncle can contribute to his employer's 401k?

In my case:
1) I work for a Fortune 500 bank. You can begin contributing to the 401k after 1 year of employment, they match 50% of what you contribute ... so if you contribute 5% of your montly paycheck ... they will match 2.5% for free.
2) 7 years then you are 100% vested
3) Yes they match 100% up to 6%
4) You can contribute up to 25% of your monthly paycheck to the companies 401k

 

[Maverick]

what exactly does being "vested" mean? What does it entitle you to?

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: weezergirl
just wondering but how much of your salary do you guys normally put into your 401K? i just started working and let my uncle who is good with money handle all my finances...and i know nothing about this stuff...hehe.

I put 10% because my company matches up to 8% and I can get by without the extra money.

You really should learn something about your own retirement money though -- your uncle might be like the guy above and putting all of your money into one company stock.

If you have a lot of free cash you should also be putting money into a Roth IRA (can do this with a bank CD at etradebank.com) since the money will grow tax-free and you can take money out for a house down payment.

 

[Viper GTS]

Originally posted by: Shiva112
what exactly does being "vested" mean? What does it entitle you to?

It's how much of the money you own.

Basically all the money you contribute is yours when you put it in, but company matching is typically not all yours until you've been with the company a set amount of time.

For example, at my company you aren't fully vested until 4 years. 50% at two years, 75% at 3, and 100% at 4 years.

If you leave at 2.5 years, you would only get your money + 50% of the company matching.

My 401K right now:

Total Value of Your Investment $2,104.74

Total Vested Balance* $1,992.96

I don't think I'm going anywhere for a while.



Viper GTS

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: Shiva112
what exactly does being "vested" mean? What does it entitle you to?

Say a company will match contributions with 50% of their own money, you put in $100 they add $50.

But with vesting it takes X years before you're really going to get the full $50: if you leave early they take some of the $50 back (but your own $100 is still yours).