Continue to Invest?

[DJD]

Knowing how this economy is impacting our personal retirement funds I was wondering what you have done about it. Have you stopped any further investments until you see what will happen? Maybe your buying while things are low?
I'm not cashing in my investments but am seriously thinking of stopping it for a while. Starting to feel that I might need that monthly money draw to survive instead of putting it away.

[Chubminnow]

I've done what you've described. I still have a 401k, and like a lot of other people I have seen it fall, fall, fall...I know when it's low like it is now you're supposed to buy, buy, buy....but I don't know, with how things look for this entire year of 2009 I figured it might fall some more (in my opinion), how far it's going to fall is beyond me. But I kind of got tired of it all, and being in the construction industry like I am there's no telling what might happen to my job, so I said to heck with the 401k. What I did at the end of January was told my employer I wanted to cease further contributions at this time. What I did then was I went to the bank and opened a savings account and called it 410K, now the money that I was contributing to the 401K is now going into this savings account. Of course I'm taxed a lot more than I was but I figured if I get laid off the money in the bank will come in handy...and if I don't get laid off then lord only knows how much "this old house" could use some work. So for now, I didn't get out, I left the remaining money there in hopes that things will get better...and in the mean time I'm doing something different for awhile. I'm 47 and there ain't no gaurantee's I'll ever be able to retire anyway, heck I might not even live that long....

[pontooner]

Knowing how this economy is impacting our personal retirement funds I was wondering what you have done about it. Have you stopped any further investments until you see what will happen? Maybe your buying while things are low?
I'm not cashing in my investments but am seriously thinking of stopping it for a while. Starting to feel that I might need that monthly money draw to survive instead of putting it away.

Just hide all your money under the mattress, that way you'll know it's safe.

Seriously though I hear one expert say keep investing and another saying to cut back or stop, so who knows what to do.

I guess the question is have we hit bottom yet? If so there's no where to go but up, if not ugggh don't want to even think about it.

[zx150]

I invested some more money on Friday for my daughter's college fund. I will keep investing every two weeks in my 457. I maybe a fool, but I look at it like the mutual funds are on a blue light special. Ryan

[MrSplitshot]

I'm young at 30...and one of the good decisions I've made was to start investing in my company's 401K early. I've been in it for 8 years now and I've seen in grow steadily, though nothing earth shattering...just good growth. I'm in a mixed bag of conservative and more risky funds. For the last year, like everyone else, it has fallen...not horrible yet, but bad enough for me to not like it. The problem is that I'm not quite smart enough to know the ins and outs, just enough to be dangerous. I've not moved money around within the 401K on that account. I've let it sit.

Everyone tells me that since I'm young, and have plenty of time before retirement notions, that right now the money I'm contributing every week is buying stocks on the cheap cheap...and it will pay off/come back long before I need it.

I agree that it will come back, but it's still scary to see your money go away. SO, I've taken the "don't look at it" approach. I quit checking my balance about Christmas. I literally have not looked at it. I'll get my report in the mail at the end of each quarter, and that's all I'm going to look at for now. Maybe that's right, maybe that's wrong...I dunno...but I don't have my contribution percentage too terribly high right now.

The folks I feel sorry for are the late career guys, like my Dad...he's 56...and his poor 401K has took an absolute beating. Some of the older guys at work see the market fall and say "there's another year before I can retire"...scary crap.

Burying it in mason jars like Lucius Clay sure doesn't pay the dividends, but as long as you mark the spot it should be there in 30 years.

Of course, with the way the current administration is devaluing the dollar, it won't be worth anything by the time I retire anyway. A gallon of milk will cost $3,217 and it will be like trying to buy a car in pesos.

[mhall]

I switched everything over in my 401-k to guaranteed about a year and a half ago. I can't dabble with anything in the stock market for two years after this move the way ours is set up. Like I said that was a year and a half ago and it looks like I made a decent decision. I'm not making a whole lot but I'm not loosing my shirt either. There are fellas over here at work that have lost 10's of thousands. I had to stop the bleeding I couldn't stand it. And with the moron we have in office now it's not gonna get better anytime soon.

[Dave Stewart]

Better put some of that in gold....and better have the gold in your hands. Now if I only had the money to buy some.

[Col Forbin]

GOLD!!! - I wish I had the money to buy some now too - Actually I wish I had some gold to sell some. My wife had some old gold necklaces and bracelets from high school - that looks like they have been run over a few times, and sold them to a gold broker, and got $600 a several months ago - these were close to being thrown away too.

My wife and I have two retirement plans set up. The teacher retirement - a great secure plan, and also have a 401k and 457B. The teacher retirement plan is to live on, and the investment plan is to have fun on - maybe a new boat, and part of a new house. We put $200 in our investment stuff last month and lost over $400. SO it is not looking good now, but I am 18 years away from retirement, and she is 22 years away - so we have some time for it to rebound - hopefully it will.

Dave, can I trade some gold for a trip? LOL!

[DJD]

GOLD!!! - I wish I had the money to buy some now too - Actually I wish I had some gold to sell some. My wife had some old gold necklaces and bracelets from high school - that looks like they have been run over a few times, and sold them to a gold broker, and got $600 a several months ago - these were close to being thrown away too.

My wife and I have two retirement plans set up. The teacher retirement - a great secure plan, and also have a 401k and 457B. The teacher retirement plan is to live on, and the investment plan is to have fun on - maybe a new boat, and part of a new house. We put $200 in our investment stuff last month and lost over $400. SO it is not looking good now, but I am 18 years away from retirement, and she is 22 years away - so we have some time for it to rebound - hopefully it will.

Dave, can I trade some gold for a trip? LOL!

Kevin,
I heard that AIG deals with alot of Educational Retirements? Wonder how true that is or if your has been tied into them? That might not be good news.

[Devils Horse]

Interesting this thread came up when it did. Nice job Don.

Sure I listened to all the experts who always say "Just ride out the bumps in the road of the stock market, and stay with it". Well I stuck it out and stayed diversified. I watched 35% of my 401k's value bleed off till I simply couldn't stand the pressure anymore. Recently moved everything to VERY conservative investments and have 'saved' some serious money just in the last few days. All I can say is I wish to hell I'd been smart as Mark.

Nobody has any advice worth a rip, because nobody's ever seen a situation like this. The market looses 3% of it's value in a single day, AIG gets 30 billion more of our money, and the federal government announces the Palestenians get the better part of another billion. This on the heels of trillions of new federal borrowing and spending.

Never have I seen anything so stupid. Never. Ever. We've all seen governmental stupidity, but it ALL pales in comparison to the first six weeks of this administration.

[DJD]

You know the thing that makes it tough for me is that if I stop the monthly draw I lose the matching funds from the company. Of course I could get it figured to the penny and only draw that amount out to qualify for the match. I guess I have some pondering to do.....

[Stonewall2002]

With the Dow now at or near 6700 I have more DOUBLED my 401k contributions. A month before the September crash I withdrew my entire 401k and invested in an extremely undervalued home, so I was lucky to have pulled out before the carnage started. This is a perfect opportunity to get in while things are CHEEP!!! The current state of the market is nothing more than a psychological reaction to Obama economic policies, and while he may continue to bumble through his term, there isn’t much farther the markets can drop. This is a huge opportunity to make some big dollars by investing. We are at or near the bottom.