When stocks crashed 50% I lost more than 50% in my 401k. Now it's tripled and still haven't made my money back.

It sounds like you have a math problem.

Welcome to the blue collar suckers club .

It 's rigged against us .

Fact

Post the ticker symbols of your mutual fund investments, and we'll let you know.

Your financial advisor is ripping you off.

http://www.edelmanfinancial.com/education-center/articles/w/what-you-should-know-about-your-financial-planner?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTURNeFpERTVaVEJqTXpndyIsInQiOiJOWDAyYUY2S29Od01HRDdWUU1VdzR0OXpOSDFXc2tteGlqUkQ4OG9iaVNuOStRU2lGSWs5RWhjaGZNb1NQUWI0RGpoZ09cL2ZSUDlRdFFmRllZUlZ0amhnXC9oaHRwNkNkM3VSeXJlbDVyQjVaR1VDbWJnWERLMG1TMURpem5UWThtIn0%3D

S$P 500 is up 7% per year for the last 10 years.

1 Year 3 Year 5 Year 10 Year

500 Index Fund Adm 20.00% 10.81% 14.05% 6.98%

By the rule of 72, it should take about 10 years to double your money.

Shown quite nicely on this graph:

https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/snapshot?FundId=0540&FundIntExt=INT#tab=1

≥≥≥ So who is ripping me off? ≤≤≤

Your elementary school math teachers are first to get blame.

plog wrote:

≥≥≥ So who is ripping me off? ≤≤≤

Your elementary school math teachers are first to get blame.

Well I had 65k sitting in a valic 401k account. I moved jobs and so no new contributions were added.

Stock market went from 13,000 points to 6500ish around 2008. Balance dropped to $31k. Now stock market is 20,000+ points and my balance is $62k

I've always assumed others are getting rich off the pooled money of the middle class but you gotta share.

Beware of Porsche drivers wrote:

Your financial advisor is ripping you off.

http://www.edelmanfinancial.com/education-center/articles/w/what-you-should-know-about-your-financial-planner?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTURNeFpERTVaVEJqTXpndyIsInQiOiJOWDAyYUY2S29Od01HRDdWUU1VdzR0OXpOSDFXc2tteGlqUkQ4OG9iaVNuOStRU2lGSWs5RWhjaGZNb1NQUWI0RGpoZ09cL2ZSUDlRdFFmRllZUlZ0amhnXC9oaHRwNkNkM3VSeXJlbDVyQjVaR1VDbWJnWERLMG1TMURpem5UWThtIn0%3D

Great advert for your company there

Not a stock broker wrote:

plog wrote:

≥≥≥ So who is ripping me off? ≤≤≤

Your elementary school math teachers are first to get blame.

Well I had 65k sitting in a valic 401k account. I moved jobs and so no new contributions were added.

Stock market went from 13,000 points to 6500ish around 2008. Balance dropped to $31k. Now stock market is 20,000+ points and my balance is $62k

I've always assumed others are getting rich off the pooled money of the middle class but you gotta share.

Do you have any idea as to what you're invested in? Fund names or ticker symbols?

Not a stock broker wrote:

plog wrote:

≥≥≥ So who is ripping me off? ≤≤≤

Your elementary school math teachers are first to get blame.

Well I had 65k sitting in a valic 401k account. I moved jobs and so no new contributions were added.

Stock market went from 13,000 points to 6500ish around 2008. Balance dropped to $31k. Now stock market is 20,000+ points and my balance is $62k

I've always assumed others are getting rich off the pooled money of the middle class but you gotta share.

By "stock market" you mean Dow Jones Industrial Average. This index has indeed recovered nicely. However, just because the stock market as a whole has recovered does not mean that the specific funds you're invested in have recovered at the same rate.

Valic S-U-C-K-S, sucks. Since you moved jobs roll that 401k money over to a traditional IRA. I suggest Vanguard adn their S&P 500 fund.

Not a stock broker wrote:

plog wrote:

≥≥≥ So who is ripping me off? ≤≤≤

Your elementary school math teachers are first to get blame.

Well I had 65k sitting in a valic 401k account. I moved jobs and so no new contributions were added.

Stock market went from 13,000 points to 6500ish around 2008. Balance dropped to $31k. Now stock market is 20,000+ points and my balance is $62k

I've always assumed others are getting rich off the pooled money of the middle class but you gotta share.

Unless you were invested in the DJIA what it did doesn't matter. You would have to look at your funds and see why you haven't done better. Maybe you picked some real stinkers. Or maybe you sold at the bottom. Or maybe you are the sucker paying someone 1% to manage your money. Or you bought mutual funds with 1.5% ERs. If you want index performance, you should buy indexes. If you want to gamble that you can do better, sometimes you lose.

I am 8% return for the past 10 years with a mixture of international/US/REITs/Bonds. I am pretty happy with that given it still has the 2007-8 period in it. When those come off the books returns go up a bit north of 10%.

Not a stock broker wrote:

plog wrote:

≥≥≥ So who is ripping me off? ≤≤≤

Your elementary school math teachers are first to get blame.

Well I had 65k sitting in a valic 401k account. I moved jobs and so no new contributions were added.

Stock market went from 13,000 points to 6500ish around 2008. Balance dropped to $31k. Now stock market is 20,000+ points and my balance is $62k

I've always assumed others are getting rich off the pooled money of the middle class but you gotta share.

Take your money out of the 401k. Move it to your own IRA. Invest in Vanguard Index funds. Problem solved.

Beware of Porsche drivers wrote:

Your financial advisor is ripping you off.

http://www.edelmanfinancial.com/education-center/articles/w/what-you-should-know-about-your-financial-planner?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTURNeFpERTVaVEJqTXpndyIsInQiOiJOWDAyYUY2S29Od01HRDdWUU1VdzR0OXpOSDFXc2tteGlqUkQ4OG9iaVNuOStRU2lGSWs5RWhjaGZNb1NQUWI0RGpoZ09cL2ZSUDlRdFFmRllZUlZ0amhnXC9oaHRwNkNkM3VSeXJlbDVyQjVaR1VDbWJnWERLMG1TMURpem5UWThtIn0%3D

Beware of posters that recommend over allocation to stocks at market highs.

My guess would be that at least some portion of that $65k was invested in your company stock. Some companies actually demand that a certain percentage of an employee's 401k contribution goes to company stock. Others only match with company stock. If your company stock performance hasn't quadrupled since 2008 then there you have it.

Even if that's not the case, many of the generic funds you can choose in a 401k plan are stock/bond blends. These obviously are not going to reflect the growth of the DJ.

Get the money out of there and open a Fidelity account. They'll even do it for you, just give them your login information. I happen to like the gone fishin portfolio strategy, but you could just do what others here have said and throw it into a vanguard index fund.

sovereign citizen wrote:

It sounds like you have a math problem.

It sounds like you have a reading problem.

asdfasdasf wrote:

Not a stock broker wrote:

Well I had 65k sitting in a valic 401k account. I moved jobs and so no new contributions were added.

Stock market went from 13,000 points to 6500ish around 2008. Balance dropped to $31k. Now stock market is 20,000+ points and my balance is $62k

I've always assumed others are getting rich off the pooled money of the middle class but you gotta share.

Unless you were invested in the DJIA what it did doesn't matter. You would have to look at your funds and see why you haven't done better. Maybe you picked some real stinkers. Or maybe you sold at the bottom. Or maybe you are the sucker paying someone 1% to manage your money. Or you bought mutual funds with 1.5% ERs. If you want index performance, you should buy indexes. If you want to gamble that you can do better, sometimes you lose.

.

These are all likely explanations. My guess is much of your money is in international mutual funds which have barely broken even in the last 10 year period. Also, Valic really does suck. They are the Ticketmaster of 401k providers.

plog wrote:

Valic S-U-C-K-S, sucks. Since you moved jobs roll that 401k money over to a traditional IRA. I suggest Vanguard adn their S&P 500 fund.

Thanks.

I was about cash out and put into a down payment on a rental. The appreciation on property here in the Bay Area is greater than what I'm getting. And I don't need it for retirement.

Is the vanguard thing real or you guys just work for them?