Can't bring myself to check my 401K

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I only have a bit more than $100k in my 403b (I'm a teacher) and mine is down $24k since Jan/Feb. I have a good 17 yrs until retirement but it is sickening to see it.

How did you manage to be 24% down when sp500 is only down 15%. Does your plan have some very risky investment options?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:minor? a MIIIIIIIIIINOOOOOOOOOOOOOR?

Investing is a mental game and it's a lot tougher nowadays because you can't even look at any type of screen without being bombarded with hyperbolic headlines about the stock market.

I agree. DCUM is the same sort of fear mongering. All these “so smart” so rich people freaking out- it really hows how many here lie through their teeth. I’m wealthy and this means nothing to me- DCUM professes to be so wealthy but the panic here is off the charts. Seems like some here lie.

Lol. You think? What on earth would possess you to post something so obvious? Oh, wait ... the desperate need to write out "I'm wealthy and this means nothing to me" because you have no one in real life to brag about this to because no one will listen to you anymore.

Nah- no one is talking about it. I live out west and there’s none of this chicken little crap that DC and the feds seem to be creating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sell if you want to but stop whining about it.

How do you sell your 401K?

You don’t take money out of your 401k, but within your 401k there should be different investment options. There is probably a money market, perhaps a bond fund, or a conservative target date fund that blends treasuries, bonds and a small amount of equities. People are talking about selling equities or equity mutual funds within the 401k and putting the money into one of these safer options in the 401k.

.

New poster. Thank you, this is a clear explanation.

[Anonymous]

Don't do it. I regret it.

[Anonymous]

Our retirement portfolio is still up 19.5% over the past year and 14.1% YTD. We’re also up 162.5% over the past five years ($1.25M -> $3.28M).

We check the markets daily and trade quite actively. The old days of setting and forgetting ended in January 2020.

[Anonymous]

You only need to worry if you plan to retire in the next 5 years.

If not, the downturn will work in your favor. Meaning when the stock market is down your money buys more shares. After Trump, things will go back to normal and you will benefit. Of course, this assumes there is an “after Trump” and this isn’t the beginning of an American oligarchy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our retirement portfolio is still up 19.5% over the past year and 14.1% YTD. We’re also up 162.5% over the past five years ($1.25M -> $3.28M).

We check the markets daily and trade quite actively. The old days of setting and forgetting ended in January 2020.

Outperforming Buffet, kudos to you.

[Anonymous]

I haven't checked my portfolio in weeks. I can't bring myself to look.

I'm not selling, and hoping that eventually this nightmare will end.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We were OP age in 2008. We didn't sell low. Made it up later.

Thank you for commenting. This makes me feel better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I only have a bit more than $100k in my 403b (I'm a teacher) and mine is down $24k since Jan/Feb. I have a good 17 yrs until retirement but it is sickening to see it.

How did you manage to be 24% down when sp500 is only down 15%. Does your plan have some very risky investment options?

Do you consider VTSAX to be risky? I don't. My total was $141K the last time I looked and now it's appr. $118k.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I checked and wish I hadn't. Down $180k.

I did today and it was really bad, a month ago I was about 430K and now down to 360K in TSP, and in my other IRA also down from 420K to 370K or so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our retirement portfolio is still up 19.5% over the past year and 14.1% YTD. We’re also up 162.5% over the past five years ($1.25M -> $3.28M).

We check the markets daily and trade quite actively. The old days of setting and forgetting ended in January 2020.

Does that include the money you invested over the past five years?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m down $1.25M on paper. Ugh. Was feeling pretty confident that I could retire next year. Now, not so sure.

1. You shouldn’t be losing that much on paper if you were are retiring next year?

2. The S&P 500 is down 13.54% YTD , so if you had your retirement in all of that, you should have 9 million plus? no?

[Anonymous]

Mostly in a 2055 fund, I also cannot check. I don’t want to. Maybe I’ll go on my accounts tomorrow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You only need to worry if you plan to retire in the next 5 years.

If not, the downturn will work in your favor. Meaning when the stock market is down your money buys more shares. After Trump, things will go back to normal and you will benefit. Of course, this assumes there is an “after Trump” and this isn’t the beginning of an American oligarchy.

Doesn’t also matter whether or not you need to utilize the funds when you retire?