So how much did everyone loose in their 401k's?

[Evan]

And no, not in my 401k - I don't have one, have never had one. Don't believe in owning stock in the company I work for.

Huh? Do you know what a 401(k) is?

Nothing in Article 401 Section K dictates that you must invest in the company you work for.

None of my 401(k) is invested in my company.

And many companys like mine will do dollar for dollar matching. So for every dollar I put in, they put a dollar in. Free money that I'd miss out on w/o a 401(k).

 

[JohnnyO]

Almost half, about $7000 so far. It's still worth more than I put in from my previous employer though.

 

[Capt Jay]

Jay, who are you using for your FA?

Putnam is the provider that my employer uses. They do a 75% match on the first 10% I invest. In a year it goes to 100% match on 12% and in 3 years it goes to 125% match on the first 15% of my annual income invested. So I invest the maximum amount of company match to get their free money. I haven't even checked my Roths or Mutual funds. I'm to scared to look. I may be down a total of between 75k-100k. On the good side the market had a 900 point gain yesterday. On the down side the marked is still under 9000.

 

[kbkchooch]

Ouch!!!!!

Can we talk about happier things?
Last time I talked to my investment guy, he made me feel like I sat in battery acid!!!

 

[Mark_88]

I don't have one...I'm going to rely on government assistance and feed off the taxpayers (I'm quoting my former boss here)...but I've never invested in anything...I had an RRSP but cashed it out and paid off some bills...only 13 more years before I can "officially" retire...but I've seen too many retired folks die long before they got to enjoy the fruits of their loins, er, labour...

I'm not too concerned...I smoke, drink, and eat crap...I'll probably die before my investment dream is ever born...

 

[Ozwynn]

against the advise of Charles schwab, I tied everything up in gold 18 months ago. I smelled the blood in water and noticed the sharks circling. Didn't lose a dime, infact in some cases i have seen 100% return. doesn't matter untill you pull it out though. like Jay said now is the time to buy ....... just don't buy domestic car stock ......... they got a rougher road ahead.

 

[powerplantranger]

The shock for me was when I was poking at my dad about the market and he goes to tell me that so far he's lost over 300k!!!! So I ask him, "Did you say $300,000??", and he just sits there for a second and ask if we can change the subject. I always knew he was a tight ass german,but I never even thought he'd be that bad... The way I understand it though, he's not too concerned, according to my step-mom. Hell, I was pissed about the 10k I lost in my high risk accounts, but I'm ony 29 so I have plenty of time to recover.

 

[JFA_Spyderman]

Look back over the stock markets history, it has traditionally gone crazy during an election year and always bounces back harder than it fell. Just be patient and hold steady. You never get hurt on a roller coaster unless you get off mid ride.

 

[ryan]

i've lost approx 66% of my value in the past year

since i'm not planning on retiring for quite a while i'm hoping that everything pans out

 

[Ranger Dave (B25)]

Huh? Do you know what a 401(k) is?

Nothing in Article 401 Section K dictates that you must invest in the company you work for.

None of my 401(k) is invested in my company.

And many companys like mine will do dollar for dollar matching. So for every dollar I put in, they put a dollar in. Free money that I'd miss out on w/o a 401(k).

Yes, I know what a 401k is. The one offered by our company is invested solely in company stock, or lesser-known Mutual Funds (that are not performing well). Not an ideal place to put money that you want to keep.

 

[krugford]

I've got a long way to go before I plan to retire, so the negative 43.6% doesn't really bother me. As it is, I've got 10% of my 401K going towards company stock.

 

[trkbilder]

I have lost about $70,000 in the last year. I went to my financial adviser and changed it all over to a guarnteed annuity. I'll get $1900 a month for the rest of my life from just that, no matter what the stock market does. It's only drawing 3.75 percent but that is better than losing all of it! I'm already retired and on fixed income so this will help.

 

[thegoat4]

I never got a 401k. Every six months our company takes all of us renegades and new hires and puts us through a 401k meeting. Actually, I'm the only renegade--everyone else is a new hire. It's always the same guy trying to sell us on it, and after three and a half years he's gotten to recognize my face in the meetings. I'm his example of a young man making a terrible mistake.

Every meeting since the second one he has asked me why I do not get one. "I'm waiting for the crash." I got laughed at the first few times, but this last meeting, nobody laughed.

I do not believe in getting into the stock market with anything other than disposable income. Retirement is not disposable income. No way am I going to let anonymous assholes gamble with my life savings and run off with the bulk of the profits after leaving me with 100% of the risk.

When $1000 leaves your 401k account, it goes somewhere. That somewhere is usually the pocket of a con man. I'm not feeding that beast.

And FWIW, all of the people who signed up for a 401k as of the last meeting are negative. They're effectively zero as nobody would force them to pay, but they all got statements with negative numbers on them. The people who have been at it for a while have all lost in the 60% neighborhood.

One saving grace about our company is that the 401ks are all internally insured, so you are guaranteed to be able to pull out what you contributed plus the company match. Just no interest or adjustment for inflation. That seems like a good compromise and I know of one guy who's close enough to retirement he may actually use that.

 

[JohnnyU]

As of the initial fall, I was only down about 11%. I've increased my contribution to 10%, so that means I'm buying 20% of my yearly gross pay worth of shares in companies right now. As soon as things turn around (and they WILL turn around) I'm poised for a pretty nice ROI.

 

[ZMan]

I lost $13. Then again I've only been contributing since June.