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So, your 401K is tanking, what can you do?

SSSnail

SSSnail

Lifer
Uhmmm... if you haven't checked lately, chances are your 401K is tanking, and so is mine. What can I do beside balance the assets to more stable options? Assuming that the management company suck ass (I won't mention any name, but it rhymes with transamerica...oh wait), to the tune of -11% since the start of the year.

Can I roll it over and invest it myself? I don't want to lose the company matching, but as it stands, I'm losing more money than the contributions.
 
Stop micromanaging it and let it sit for the long run. You could see about moving it within the current company to bonds to reduce some of the losses.
 
Yes, take out your money when it's low! That's the way to make big profits!

Seriously, unless you are 5 years or less away from retirement, don't sweat it. If you are in decent funds, strat buying MORE now while it's low.

It amazes me how many people want to invest more when returns are super high, and then dump it when it tanks. Ass backwards.......
 
Originally posted by: NL5
Yes, take out your money when it's low! That's the way to make big profits!

Seriously, unless you are 5 years or less away from retirement, don't sweat it. If you are in decent funds, strat buying MORE now while it's low.

It amazes me how many people want to invest more when returns are super high, and then dump it when it tanks. Ass backwards.......
Click to expand...
This is not individual stocks, and TA sucks for not having a single option that's in the positive (accept for one that's pegged to the interest rate), how can they suck so much?

Let's say you start your year with $10000, a contribution of $10 a month, and you're losing $100 a day. Soon, your options will be worthless. So when do YOU dump it? When your balance reaches $1000 and hope for a quick rebound? Or do you contribute more so that eventually your balance will reach $10000 again and lost all the time you built it?

Edit: I never like TA much anyways, and it sucks that we don't have Vanguard.
 
Take out all your 401K money now and invest in Cheesy-Puffs. That is the only possible solution.
 
you must not understand what long term retirement investing (which is what a 401(k) is for) means

keep putting in your $ and your employer match and with the lower stock prices, you get more shares

its ok

remember buy low , sell high? with stock prices lower, you are buying lower, that is better
 
Originally posted by: SSSnail
Originally posted by: MustISO
Last year my RoR was 19%, this year 1.8%. Ouch!
Click to expand...
Now, if you look at your RoR and it's at MINUS 11%, what would YOU do?
Click to expand...

The market goes through corrections, they are normal. If you are more than a few years from retirement, don't worry about it. To tell the truth, if a 11% correction scares you out of the market, you shouldn't be investing in stocks to begin with.

As a final note, if you are still a long distance from retirement, you can look at this as a good thing. It means your monthly contributions are going to buy more shares, leading to bigger returns in the future.
 
Originally posted by: SSSnail
Originally posted by: NL5
Yes, take out your money when it's low! That's the way to make big profits!

Seriously, unless you are 5 years or less away from retirement, don't sweat it. If you are in decent funds, strat buying MORE now while it's low.

It amazes me how many people want to invest more when returns are super high, and then dump it when it tanks. Ass backwards.......
Click to expand...
This is not individual stocks, and TA sucks for not having a single option that's in the positive (accept for one that's pegged to the interest rate), how can they suck so much?

Let's say you start your year with $10000, a contribution of $10 a month, and you're losing $100 a day. Soon, your options will be worthless. So when do YOU dump it? When your balance reaches $1000 and hope for a quick rebound? Or do you contribute more so that eventually your balance will reach $10000 again and lost all the time you built it?

Edit: I never like TA much anyways, and it sucks that we don't have Vanguard.
Click to expand...

No index funds?

 
Originally posted by: SSSnail
Originally posted by: MustISO
Last year my RoR was 19%, this year 1.8%. Ouch!
Click to expand...
Now, if you look at your RoR and it's at MINUS 11%, what would YOU do?
Click to expand...

NOTHING.

If anything move it to more stock based because it's buy time. Unless you're getting ready to retire you should be giddy right now because you're getting more for your money.
 
Originally posted by: FoBoT
you must not understand what long term retirement investing (which is what a 401(k) is for) means

keep putting in your $ and your employer match and with the lower stock prices, you get more shares

its ok

remember buy low , sell high? with stock prices lower, you are buying lower, that is better
Click to expand...

Maybe I fail at math, but how do I get more shares if I'm losing substantially more money than both my contribution and matching? Assuming that they purchase the shares with my contribution and then the share lose money, again at a rate far more than what I contribute, would I lose A LOT OF TIME if it starts to turn positive again? So how many years would that be? Wouldn't it be better for me to stop the loss with some other means?

Yes, I understand all that "buy low sell high", "long term investments" yaddy yadda (are you freaking serious when you were asking that?). I'm trying to maximize my returns with my time. It's a very ambitious goal but I'm planning to retire at 45, 50 latest. 32 now.
 
i lost about 1k from the last quarter.... my boss lost 4k... but i'm lucky, i moved everything out of the "company" stock which took a -23% hit. the only fund that's positive in our 401k offering is the international funds.
 
Originally posted by: NL5
Originally posted by: SSSnail
Originally posted by: NL5
Yes, take out your money when it's low! That's the way to make big profits!

Seriously, unless you are 5 years or less away from retirement, don't sweat it. If you are in decent funds, strat buying MORE now while it's low.

It amazes me how many people want to invest more when returns are super high, and then dump it when it tanks. Ass backwards.......
Click to expand...
This is not individual stocks, and TA sucks for not having a single option that's in the positive (accept for one that's pegged to the interest rate), how can they suck so much?

Let's say you start your year with $10000, a contribution of $10 a month, and you're losing $100 a day. Soon, your options will be worthless. So when do YOU dump it? When your balance reaches $1000 and hope for a quick rebound? Or do you contribute more so that eventually your balance will reach $10000 again and lost all the time you built it?

Edit: I never like TA much anyways, and it sucks that we don't have Vanguard.
Click to expand...

No index funds?
Click to expand...

Yup, and I have no idea how they manage to LOSE money at that too.
 
Originally posted by: SSSnail
Originally posted by: NL5
Originally posted by: SSSnail
Originally posted by: NL5
Yes, take out your money when it's low! That's the way to make big profits!

Seriously, unless you are 5 years or less away from retirement, don't sweat it. If you are in decent funds, strat buying MORE now while it's low.

It amazes me how many people want to invest more when returns are super high, and then dump it when it tanks. Ass backwards.......
Click to expand...
This is not individual stocks, and TA sucks for not having a single option that's in the positive (accept for one that's pegged to the interest rate), how can they suck so much?

Let's say you start your year with $10000, a contribution of $10 a month, and you're losing $100 a day. Soon, your options will be worthless. So when do YOU dump it? When your balance reaches $1000 and hope for a quick rebound? Or do you contribute more so that eventually your balance will reach $10000 again and lost all the time you built it?

Edit: I never like TA much anyways, and it sucks that we don't have Vanguard.
Click to expand...

No index funds?
Click to expand...

Yup, and I have no idea how they manage to LOSE money at that too.
Click to expand...

If you are in incex funds, they will roughly go with the indexes - which all the majors are down right now. They will eventually come back though, so buy, buy, buy!

 
Originally posted by: SSSnail
Maybe I fail at math, but how do I get more shares if I'm losing substantially more money than both my contribution and matching? Assuming that they purchase the shares with my contribution and then the share lose money, again at a rate far more than what I contribute, would I lose A LOT OF TIME if it starts to turn positive again? So how many years would that be? Wouldn't it be better for me to stop the loss with some other means?

Yes, I understand all that "buy low sell high", "long term investments" yaddy yadda (are you freaking serious when you were asking that?). I'm trying to maximize my returns with my time. It's a very ambitious goal but I'm planning to retire at 45, 50 latest. 32 now.
Click to expand...


As an example: You invest $100/month into a mutual fund for retirement. Assume last month the price was $100/share. That means you bought one share last month. This month the price is only $90, so you get to buy 1.11 shares.

So, you now have more shares than if the market had stayed constant. Over the long term, when the market bounces back up, you will end with more money.

 
Originally posted by: SSSnail

It's a very ambitious goal but I'm planning to retire at 45, 50 latest. 32 now.
Click to expand...

you are too smart for ATOT, please ban us all so that you are the only one left on ATOT
we are not worthy!
 
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