My 401K is down 50% since a year ago.

[walther]

We are talking major dollars here. I have been contributing the maximum to my 401K for 20 years, since at least 1986 or so. Now here I sit with my money worth 50% of what it was worth a year ago. I want to know WHO IS OUR TREASURY SECRETARY and what the tax policy is going to be for the next 4 years. I am sorry, but if this market doesn't recover I will be working until I am 75 YEARS OLD!

Come on Barack, TELL ME WHAT WALL STREET WANTS TO KNOW!

[babylonsister]

1. Here's some cold comfort-you're not alone. nt

[Inspired]

8. In a strange way it is a little comforting. n/t

[slackmaster]

2. We're all in the same boat, more or less

All of my earnings for the last 4 and a half years or so are gone.

[globalvillage]

3. Join the club.

:-(

[Faygo Kid]

4. I'm fortunate: I accidentally went with the most conservative option years ago, and never changed.

As a result, my 401(k) is down less than a thousand dollars. I was going to change it, but never got around to it.

Thank God!

[tabatha]

5. Barack feels for everyone - that's why he ran.

He is not in office yet.

He said it is not going to be easy - it has taken 8 years to get to this mess - if you think he can wave a wand and make it go away, then you better just leave.

[NashVegas]

6. I'm Really Sorry

It sucks to put so much of your life's savings into such an account and not know if/when it will recover.

I'm not sure what you mean, with the Barack statement, though. He inherited a mess. I don't expect him to present us a magic answer anytime in the next four weeks.

[sandnsea]

7. Welcome to the bottom 50% -

who never have any money to invest in the first place, but then get told they're being irresponsible when they have to retire on social security.

And yes I do feel bad for you. I paid my granddaughter's hospital bill and if I had invested that money instead, it'd be completely gone, no question.

[Thickasabrick]

9. Mine too - how many more years you got until retirement - I'm looking

at 4. I don't have decades for it to come back.

[HereSince1628]

10. Yah, with few years to gain it back

It's devastating, truly devastating.

The old gray mare died and fell on the goose and there will be no more golden eggs nest eggs.

[panader0]

11. Look on the bright side

I don't have a 401K. Neither do most of the construction workers I know.

[HereSince1628]

16. Are you in your late 50's?

Most construction folks I know give it up due to wear and tear on their bodies by the time they are in their 40's. Being 30 something in the midst of this you have a shot at still getting a retirement package together. For folks that thought they were 10-15 years to retirement at age 70 this is really the end of being able to take a full retirement and living independently during retirement...

This loss of retirement savings is going to force millions of folks to beg for help from their kids. This will mean multiple generations in households. The loss is likely to impact four generations of Americans for the next 25-30 years.

If you like the way your Mom does your laundry and having your dad putter with your lawn mower and gutters you're gonna love the medium range future.

[panader0]

19. I'm 58. I've been a bricklayer since age 21

I'm in very good shape, haven't been to a doctor for anything since I was a kid. (knocking on wood)

[HereSince1628]

39. You don't have any retirement savings or you just don't have a 401k?

[TripleKatPad]

12. I'm in that club, too

The way things are going, my most optimistic hope is to have a "deluxe" double-wide refrigerator box for my retirement home. Sure hope the local Wal-Mart won't mind squatters.

[lumberjack_jeff]

13. I lost half of mine in 2001.

This time I pushed the panic button in a more timely fashion. I think I only lost 10% or so.

[Stinky The Clown]

14. Yours is probably now worth less than the amount you actually contributed

Welcome to the club.

[Dukkha]

15. mine since a MONTH ago

:mad: I've not put in nearly as much as you but it still pisses me off to no end!

[blue sky at night]

17. I've lost a ton since the crash of 2001.........

i don't even want to think about it...but I have always felt that i will never retire; i won't be able to afford to, and i would probably be bored if i did....besides i will probably keel over anyway, especially now that i won't be able to afford my health-care next year, and besides i will probably not have a job next year...

glad i own an extensive amount of camping equipment.

welcome to bu$hworld, still.

[theoldman]

18. If your 401K is your only source of income and you are retiring

next year you have a problem. I am fortunate to have a small pension and SS so I do not have to withdraw money from my investments. Given enough time, 5 to 10 years, your 401K will recover. If you are now 65 the odds are that you will live long enough to get your money back. Check out a chart of the DOW over many years and you will see that it always recovers, most of the time in 3 to 5 years. The present situation is not as bad as the 1930's.

[high density]

20. So is mine

In fact I noticed last night that $4800 in contributions I had made to my Roth IRA this year have been eaten up by losses, leaving my balance a whopping $78 higher than it was on 12/31/2007. There's nothing I could do but laugh. I am going to keep regularly buying shares, that is if I can find the money.

But if you're close to retirement you shouldn't be exposed to the stock market that much. I have about 40 years to go, so while seeing half of my life savings evaporate is painful, it leaves me (and the market) with plenty of time to recover.

[CountAllVotes]

22. if you're close to retirement you shouldn't be exposed to the stock market that much

This is most certainly true. I can't help but wonder how my 80 year old aunt/uncle are doing. They have every cent in the DOW. They are quite greedy and stupid IMO.

They have no way to regain their losses. Why they are in the stock market at their ages with declining health is beyond me and I told them that. Haven't heard from them since either. :shrug:

[doc03]

21. Welcome aboard! I will turn 62 in 15 months and have

been planing to retire then. I have my 401k in a Retirement 2010 Fund so it was supposed to be allocated rather conservatively but still I think I have lost about 1/3 its value. Retirement in the next 15 months is kind of up in the air. If the Big 3 go under that may mean my small pension I am entitlled to from the PBGC will be in jeopardy, who knows I may be working until 66 or more.

[Mojorabbit]

23. Mine are in IRA's

and I am in the same boat. I don't even look at my statements anymore.

[Hoyt]

24. Just checked mine for first time in months.

Worse than I had hoped, but good to know I have company.

Maybe right wingers will stop bitching about Carter now. Probably not.

[JimWis]

25. I am semi-retired already and have my money in IRA's. I draw

from them to supplement my social security. If they keep going down, I will have to go back to work full time. It's making me nervous as hell watching the market sinking. I don't have any great amount, but I have lost close to 40 percent, which also brings down future earnings. All I can hope is that it eventually goes back up.

[doc03]

26. Think what SS would look like today if

the Republicans managed to put it in the market. Just a couple months ago the head of the PBGC was wanting to put their funds in the stock market, I hope that was stopped in time.

[SoCalDem]

33. He did it.. PBGC lost close to $5B....n.t

[doc03]

36. Is there anything the Rethugs haven't screwed up? n/t

[codjh9]

27. There's no f-ing telling how much my accounts are down - I don't want to look - but I suspect

50%, sure. We're all screwed... I think things will get better under The Big O admin., but HOW much better, I don't know. The world has many big interrelated problems, some of which the vast majority of people are barely aware of or are in complete denial of.

[Hekate]

28. Sucks, doesn't it? We're 61, and last time hubby looked, 7 years off our retirement had evaporated.

Sure he's a community college prof with tenure, but the Governator is practically dismantling the college system in California because there is NO MONEY LEFT, and hey-- tenure doesn't matter if your department is eliminated. He's just keeping his fingers crossed that his department will survive, though at a minimum it will be down to two full-time faculty, no lab assistants, no part time instructors, no nuthin'.

This morning over coffee I said, "Well sweetie, just let me know when you want me to get some chickens for the side yard."

Hekate

[GoesTo11]

29. Sounds exactly like me and at least 2 friends I spoke with today

S&P 500 is the broad index and it's down over 50% now. So this is just the way it is for everyone who did what they thought was the right thing, saved as much as they could and put it in stocks. The market is now about where it was at almost 12 years ago. And this is basically what has happened worldwide.

Not that it changes your situation, but I feel like it wasn't an obvious bubble and I couldn't have predicted that the world market would drop in value by 50% in a few months. The biggest fastest drop in I don't know how long - bigger and faster than the great depression. Anyone who really predicted it could have made a humungous fortune, so I think most people who say they saw it coming are just saying that. I don't know if the money's coming back or if a lot more is about to disappear to - hell, if I could predict those things, I wouldn't have just lost half my money.

Where does that leave things? I worked out exactly what I have and exactly what I will have to spend under various assumptions. What's in my control? I could work a few years longer, or I could have less in retirement or spend less now and try to save more. If I don't save more or work a few years longer, I'd survive, but have a more basic retirement than I want so I figured I have to try to make some more money on the side or work longer - but that's still a choice -- if I hated my work, I'd rather just retire with less.

I feel horrible looking backward and thinking about what I could have done differently - spend while I had it or get out of the market in time or whatever. But rationally, that's useless to think about it just makes me feel worse. Looking soberly and forward is more productive. I see what the plan is and what the prospects are. Sure, I wish they were better. But I can at least know where I stand and make the best of it by seeing things as they are.

If I was just thinking of the past and how I've got to get back what I lost, I'd be paralyzed. For example, I was talking with my wife about what we'd lost and she asked "does this mean we can't go out for coffee with friends?" No, because we don't HAVE to make it all back. It means we have to ask more often whether we can afford to do something - we'll eat out less, travel closer to home, etc., but by looking at the current situation objectively, we realize there's a difference between scaling back and losing everything.

OP, I hope your situation is like mine and that you can still be ok, really, even if you've taken a huge hit.

[petronius]

30. I looked at mine today for the first time in a month - it was much worse than I'd expected

Still, I've got a long way to go so as long as I keep my job I'm OK. I feel a lot worse for the people close to retirement...

[TheFarseer]

31. sorry, brother

I am an amateur tradder and I lost $400 yesterday and $500 today, so I'm not very happy with any of this either. There is almost literally no stocks you can invest in that will make you money right now. The only consolation is now you can buy stocks at beat down prices and odds are they will come back eventually. The best you can hope for short term is to not get killed which we are both doing a poor job of.

[47of74]

32. The stock in my company...

The stock in my company was up around $12.00 last summer. It's now about $7. I'm working on a project with a client company whose stock price was up over $40 earlier this year, they're down now to under $9.00 a share.

[scarletwoman]

34. I'm sorry for you. And I hope you find some way to make things work out well for yourself.

I have never understood why ANYONE would equate investing in the stock market with "savings". Gambling is not a viable method of guaranteeing income.

Sorry, but I think everyone who bought into the 401K scam was conned. It's not their fault -- everyone was telling them that it was the greatest thing since sliced bread -- but, come on. Having a 401K is not "saving" for retirement, it's letting Wall Street get fatter on your money.

sw

[KayLaw]

40. I agree, Scarlet woman.

There's a reason some people call the stock market the casino.

Also, things are so horribly screwed up, I don't know what can be done. George Bush is still president. What's he doing?

[spanone]

35. welcome to my world....

[doc03]

37. Was just looking at an old newspaper I saved

for a local news story from August 1, 1997 GM closed at $64 7/16. Today GM closed at $2.88. The company I work for sold for $28.05 on May 15 this year, yesterday it closed at $2.06 even though we made over $3b profit in the third quarter. I'm glad I don't have stock in either one.

[BamaGirl]

38. We're in the same boat.

It sucks. :(

[ProfessorGAC]

41. Because It's All About You

And, you said that already.
The Professor