So let's hear it: How bad did your 401K drop this year?

Eyegore,

I also work for the government and contribute to TSP. I've only been contributing around 3.5% of my salary of $48,000. I just turned 24 a few days ago, but I feel like I'm off to a decent start towards retirement. I have a pretty nice spreadsheet you could take a look at if you want to email me regarding TSP contributions. I would like to contribute more, but it's tough when you own a house and are repaying student loans.

Jerbear13@msn.com

KD wrote:

Flagpole has a lot of nerve coming here AGAIN AND AGAIN, ad nauseum, selling his stock market snake oil. You are a fraud, Flagpole. You and your dollar cost averaging BS can go the way of the dinosaur.

DON'T LISTEN TO THIS FRAUD. HE WILL COST YOU DEARLY. HE IS A CHARLATAN. IF I HAD A DOLLAR FOR THE AMOUNT OF TIMES HE AND HIS MONEY MANAGING ILK HAVE BEEN PROVEN WRONG I'D BE A BILLIONAIRE.

I haven't been proven wrong. How could I have been? My contention is that I really couldn't care less how the market does from year to year. At this point when I've been investing since the DOW was at 2,700, and with more than 17 years left to retirement, how the market is doing in 2008-2009 makes no difference to me (though I do love the ability to accumulate right now). The only real way I'm affected is that my non-retirement mutual fund lost a lot in 2008, so affectively I have less liquid money available to me than I did a year ago, but even so, I don't plan to need it and I have a separate emergency fund anyway.

-45.4% for 2008. Down over $68,000. And that's with putting all my investments in a safe mutual fund in early Oct. I'm buying back in any day now.

Orville - I hope you have your investments in a safer vehicle than stock mutual funds. If you're taking MRDs, you should be in less-volatile investments, like bonds or money markets. Good luck.

32.9% Painful to say the least. I do think things should turn around in 09. Nice start so far

distance guy wrote:

-45.4% for 2008. Down over $68,000. And that's with putting all my investments in a safe mutual fund in early Oct. I'm buying back in any day now.

Orville - I hope you have your investments in a safer vehicle than stock mutual funds. If you're taking MRDs, you should be in less-volatile investments, like bonds or money markets. Good luck.

The reason you lost MORE than 40% on the year is because you moved things to safer vehicles in October. The DOW was up about 20% from Nov. 20 until the end of the year. Don't mean to kick a man when he's down, but that's the problem with trying to move things around. You ESPECIALLY don't want to move things to safer vehicles after the market has had a huge drop. By then it is too late. Now, you're about to buy back in when the market has gone up. Unless you are in retirement or very close to it, just let it ride.

Just comparing my portfolio's market value at 1/1/2008 and 12/31/2008, I'm down 26%. It's probably a lot more than that since I obviously bought shares throughout the year that theoretically increased the market value.

My house value is down about 19%.

F@#$ this. I'm going to start paying down my mortgage with extra cash instead of saving it. I'll lose out on any upside in the stock market, but at least I'm guaranteed to be debt free in 10 years.