How much are you losing on your 401k?

[sportage]

Holy bat wings...
Just mAybe we WILL need to depend on SS when we retire?
THANK GOD Newt Gingrich and Bush did not get their way with SS.

 

[lokiju]

401k's are long term.

5, 10 and more year plans.

 

[ajf3]

-19.2% in one, -9% in the other this year... not sure if they're counting the money I contributed as gains though so it might be a lot worse...

 

[imported_Lothar]

Originally posted by: sportage
Holy bat wings...
Just mAybe we WILL need to depend on SS when we retire?
THANK GOD Newt Gingrich and Bush did not get their way with SS.

SS won't be there for me when I retire.

 

[Special K]

Originally posted by: Lothar

Originally posted by: sportage
Holy bat wings...
Just mAybe we WILL need to depend on SS when we retire?
THANK GOD Newt Gingrich and Bush did not get their way with SS.

SS won't be there for me when I retire.

Do you really think they will just let it die?

I won't factor it into my retirement planning, but I would be surprised if it isn't still around in some form.

 

[thirtythree]

Down about 20%, and I'm not doing anything risky (aside from investing in stocks...)

 

[Axoliien]

Originally posted by: sciencewhiz

Originally posted by: Axoliien
I was way up for 3 years, something like 22%, then a quarter or two ago it dropped back and now I'm still up about 6% over 3 years. There are tricks you can do for 401K... my father is watching his and from what I understand he will do the following... close out his 401K this year at a huge loss from last year, claim the loss, and buy another portfolio of approximately the same set. I would have to review exactly what it was he said he would do, but in essence you claim a loss and deduct from your income total, reducing your end of year tax, and paying the tax on the sale, and if you do it right you can save a few thousand in these cases. If you are interested I can get the info and document it here later.

That's called Loss Harvesting, and only works in taxable accounts. If your father is trying to do it in his 401k, the IRS will be happy to assess the appropriate taxes, fees, and penalties.

http://www.accumulatingmoney.com/loss-harvesting/

Yeah, I called him last night and he told me I didn't get it when he was discussing this with me... oops... I knew about the idea but obviously got the implementation wrong!

 

[randay]

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim

Originally posted by: randay

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim
Personal Rate of Return from 01/01/2008 to 09/16/2008 is -28.2%

Rate of Return for the period beginning January 1, 2008 and ending September 17, 2008 is -26.91%

youre beating me!

I know 3% in the last week alone! its really smoking!

Rate of Return for the period beginning January 1, 2008 and ending September 18, 2008 is -30.64%

 

[Casawi]

Originally posted by: Casawi
This is my first year in this plan. I just checked to find out I am earning -8.5%, a little bit shocked since the rep or consultant guy or whatever told us... on average, one should be earning something 8%. That's a big difference...anyways I am just wondering if I should take any action? and how much others are losing.

Just got my statement for this quarter, and it is -13% :/
I will just ride this year out then consider reallocating things a bit, try to go to a modest risk zone.

 

[microAmp]

Lost a little then switched over to a 401k 4% savings account.

 

[hunewbie]

Originally posted by: randay

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim

Originally posted by: randay

Originally posted by: IcebergSlim
Personal Rate of Return from 01/01/2008 to 09/16/2008 is -28.2%

Rate of Return for the period beginning January 1, 2008 and ending September 17, 2008 is -26.91%

youre beating me!

I know 3% in the last week alone! its really smoking!

Rate of Return for the period beginning January 1, 2008 and ending September 18, 2008 is -30.64%

phew...thought i was the only one at the -30's...
money value wise...i lost about 25k. afraid to look now...

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Why don't you guys pull out and put it in cash or moneymarket or whatever? My 401k is all in money market at the moment, and I'll keep it there till market turns around.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Originally posted by: randay

Originally posted by: Special K

Originally posted by: iFX

Originally posted by: Special K

Originally posted by: iFX
So much I cashed it out in July! The penalty was WAY less than what I had already lost and what I was projected to lose.

Cashed out as in took the money completely out of your 401k, or cashed out as in you sold your stock funds and moved the money into an MMF?

Most all of it (97%) is in a MMF now. I'm making money now instead of hemorrhaging it!

If you cashed it out in July 2008, that means you just sold at the market's bottom. Congratulations.

You would have done far better in the long run buying and holding.

You might also want to look into a portfolio that is more in line with your risk tolerance so you are not tempted to sell every time the market drops.

SELL LOW BUY HIGH!!!

Well well guys this is only the beginning. NOW what do you think about cashing out because clearly the market is at its bottom now. Well, no it has a long ways to go before bottoming out, so any cashout done before Sept would still be far more worth it.

 

[Special K]

Originally posted by: DLeRium

Originally posted by: randay

Originally posted by: Special K

Originally posted by: iFX

Originally posted by: Special K

Originally posted by: iFX
So much I cashed it out in July! The penalty was WAY less than what I had already lost and what I was projected to lose.

Cashed out as in took the money completely out of your 401k, or cashed out as in you sold your stock funds and moved the money into an MMF?

Most all of it (97%) is in a MMF now. I'm making money now instead of hemorrhaging it!

If you cashed it out in July 2008, that means you just sold at the market's bottom. Congratulations.

You would have done far better in the long run buying and holding.

You might also want to look into a portfolio that is more in line with your risk tolerance so you are not tempted to sell every time the market drops.

SELL LOW BUY HIGH!!!

Well well guys this is only the beginning. NOW what do you think about cashing out because clearly the market is at its bottom now. Well, no it has a long ways to go before bottoming out, so any cashout done before Sept would still be far more worth it.

My investment horizon is 40+ years. I can afford to ride out this volatility. Therefore I will continue to make my normal contributions to my retirement accounts and periodically rebalance my portfolio to maintain my target asset allocation.

You don't know which way the market is headed. Your crystal ball isn't any better than anyone else's. If you are so confident this is only the beginning of the decline, then put your money where your mouth is and short the market. If you are correct, then you'll make a ton of money.

All of the research done on market timing has demonstrated that hardly anyone can do it consistently in the long run. Even if you get out now and miss the losses, will you know exactly when to get back into stocks so that you don't miss any big gains? Will you be able to correctly predict when to get into and out of the market over the course of the next 3-4 economic boom-bust cycles you will probably see during your lifetime? All of the studies out there suggest most people won't.

 

[kalrith]

There was a mix up in my 401k that I kept meaning to check on but didn't get around to until last week. They were putting all my money into a money-market fund instead of distributing them as I had requested. It turns out that I didn't get a form two years ago that was for their new system, so I had about $5k sitting in the money-market fund. They just distributed it into the funds I had requested, so this actually worked out quite well for me.

 

[Casawi]

Originally posted by: microAmp
Lost a little then switched over to a 401k 4% savings account.

Is there fine/fee for that?

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Originally posted by: Special K

Originally posted by: DLeRium

Originally posted by: randay

Originally posted by: Special K

Originally posted by: iFX

Originally posted by: Special K

Originally posted by: iFX
So much I cashed it out in July! The penalty was WAY less than what I had already lost and what I was projected to lose.

Cashed out as in took the money completely out of your 401k, or cashed out as in you sold your stock funds and moved the money into an MMF?

Most all of it (97%) is in a MMF now. I'm making money now instead of hemorrhaging it!

If you cashed it out in July 2008, that means you just sold at the market's bottom. Congratulations.

You would have done far better in the long run buying and holding.

You might also want to look into a portfolio that is more in line with your risk tolerance so you are not tempted to sell every time the market drops.

SELL LOW BUY HIGH!!!

Well well guys this is only the beginning. NOW what do you think about cashing out because clearly the market is at its bottom now. Well, no it has a long ways to go before bottoming out, so any cashout done before Sept would still be far more worth it.

My investment horizon is 40+ years. I can afford to ride out this volatility. Therefore I will continue to make my normal contributions to my retirement accounts and periodically rebalance my portfolio to maintain my target asset allocation.

You don't know which way the market is headed. Your crystal ball isn't any better than anyone else's. If you are so confident this is only the beginning of the decline, then put your money where your mouth is and short the market. If you are correct, then you'll make a ton of money.

All of the research done on market timing has demonstrated that hardly anyone can do it consistently in the long run. Even if you get out now and miss the losses, will you know exactly when to get back into stocks so that you don't miss any big gains? Will you be able to correctly predict when to get into and out of the market over the course of the next 3-4 economic boom-bust cycles you will probably see during your lifetime? All of the studies out there suggest most people won't.

Sorry I didn't mean cash out as in bail out on your 401k. I meant put the money in a MFF instead of stock funds which would be very wise now. Cashing out of your 401k entirely is only worthwhile if say you're going to be retiring in 5 years in which case I might still leave it in there because I'm willing to bet 5 years is better than it is now. I think what I meant to say is that if he did move his money out of stock funds into an MMF it was the wise thing to do. Moreover, I believe that if you bailed in July in general for anything, you're a lot wiser than the people who are bailing now, although people should've seen this coming a year ago.

 

[bctbct]

-15.91 for 2008

 

[Gunslinger08]

I'm not even going to look. Last time I checked, it was 40%.

 

[LS21]

lossse are probably in the low/mid 30s. havent checked in a while.
i actually upped my contribution a few percentage points.
even a broken clock is right twice a day

 

[Engineer]

Originally posted by: joshsquall
I'm not even going to look. Last time I checked, it was 40%.

Down 42.x% for 08. Upped my contribution to 17% and the company (who just froze my pension permanently) upped it match from 1.5% to 3.5% so I'm putting 20.5% in right now. If I'm going down, I might as well go down swinging.

 

[blackangst1]

Seeing how its unrealized loss for me, I havent lost anything *shrug* But Im nit picking. I think altogether I ended up +6% for the year overall. But like Engineer I upped my contributions across the board starting in Aug. I think.