Well, at least I still have my 401K. I think.

[leftyladyfrommo]

I hate this bailout of all these crooks and liars. But what if these guys all went down - and they all certainly deserve to - and everyone with 401ks lost all of their life savings. That would just be a horrible disaster.

[SmokingJacket]

1. Well, it WOULD be terrible.

I liked it better when people had pensions, and didn't have to put their retirements into risk-bearing accounts.

How did it happen that we all got used to depending on the upward curve of the stock market for our retirements?

[shraby]

3. When they said we could, then they added the

kicker..you have to pay taxes on it when you take it out...then they added another kicker..there are penalties for early withdrawal which just about eats up all that you have in it...IF...the stock market continues to climb.
If it doesn't and you wait to long to withdraw, presto chango..no 401K money at all after taxes and penalties.

[cyberpj]

6. Not only that, but some of us remember companies being allowed to have "bad quarters" or even

"hard times" without causing any panic for shareholders or laying off employees.

during the 80's - seems like any downturn in a company's stock meant immediate downsizing (the fancy new word for layoffs) and many times CEO roulette.

as Reaganomics and 80's greed took hold along with the ability to ship jobs overseas to cheaper employees everything started revolving around corporate profits for every reporting period and continuing upward

--to infinity and beyond!

remember the movie slogan - Greed is good.

[DemoTex]

9. I had a pension once. It was terminated by a Repub bankruptcy judge on 3/31/2003.

The CEO begged the BK court to allow him to terminate the pilots' pension plan. The judge allowed termination of our pension. The CEO got canned by the board a few months later, and bailed with a $10+ million golden parachute.

[Vickers]

2. Mine is down 18.1% for the year.

I should've bought a Corvette in January with that money...

:P

[halfstep]

4. This bail out assures you lose your 401K..it does not "protect" it

sure the stock market will go up for a week or 2 on this news but in the long run (actually the pretty short run too) this plan will crash and burn and your 401k will drop like a rock...its not rocket science that you cant fix a huge debt problem by borrowing more money..there is no way this can work and the future of our economy is very bleak!!

[cyberpj]

8. Then I say get some money back on the increase then move it to Money Market funds.

[NeedleCast]

5. You still have your 401K

and assuming you don't pull any money out of it, right now you're trading lower profits for additional shares.

I think a good rule of thumb in times like this is to watch what all the people who are panicing are doing, then pretty much do the opposite.

[soulcore]

7. And what about those of us too young or too poor to have a 401k?

Oh yeah, we get to help bail out Wall Street AND everyone else as well.

I declare myself too big to fail, please give me money!