Can't bring myself to check my 401K

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You sound ungrateful OP, most people don’t have the luxury of a 401k.

False. 72% of private employers offer a 401(k), and % is higher for civilian employers and gov't employers. Now - if people do not CHOOSE to set money aside, different matter. Everything is a choice.

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ebs2.htm?ref=guideline.com#ncs_nb_table1

Your entitlement is showing.

Research from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2021 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) indicates that in 2020, approximately 34.6% of working-age individuals (ages 15 to 64) owned 401(k)-style defined contribution (DC) plans.

What percentage of these are in a HH with one though. If a spouse has one, that probably represents a significant part of retirement planning

[Anonymous]

DH is 60; I'm mid 50s, want to retire in 2 years. I.can't.look.

I checked kids 529 last night. Thankfully, I invested a lot in the MMA fund when the rates were high. So, the loss wasn't *that* bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You sound ungrateful OP, most people don’t have the luxury of a 401k.

False. 72% of private employers offer a 401(k), and % is higher for civilian employers and gov't employers. Now - if people do not CHOOSE to set money aside, different matter. Everything is a choice.

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ebs2.htm?ref=guideline.com#ncs_nb_table1

Your entitlement is showing.

Research from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2021 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) indicates that in 2020, approximately 34.6% of working-age individuals (ages 15 to 64) owned 401(k)-style defined contribution (DC) plans.

dp.. IRAs are also invested in the stock market. Research shows that some 54% own some form of retirement account.

https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/investing/retirement-statistics

According to the Federal Reserve's 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances, 54.4% of all families have retirement accounts,

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was at mid $2million, thought I'd be at $3million in another 5 years.

I have a years salary sitting in cash, but so, so worried. I'm am going to lose my job and not be able to find another.

I haven't checked since last week. Will wait until Friday night, so if I lose a nights sleep at least it won't affect work.

Life was feeling pretty good. I've sacrificed and worked so hard for everything. I may not have been living in the rust belt but I'm a normal middle class person who just worked really, really hard.

I detest that man.

Times like these in the market are how you make your money.

Market is on a 20% off sale. Keep buying.

Oh the buy the dip BS. Because we all cashed out and are just waiting to reinvest. Because we all know this is the bottom?

And while I'm not the OP, you have no idea why she has $2M. I have more than I would have had because my parents died. Or maybe they just put away the max amount each year. Or maybe they didn't have kids.

Absolutely buy the dip. The market will have another all time high - be in in 1 year, 5 years, etc.

As another poster said, the stocks you buy today will be the money you’ll be living off of in 30 years, even if you’re near retirement age.

And if you’re near retirement age, I suggest the bucket approach:

1) 2-3 years of expenses in cash and cash equivalents.
2) 2-5 years of expenses in short - medium term bonds.
3) rest in stocks.

https://www.morningstar.com/portfolios/bucket-approach-building-retirement-portfolio

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You sound ungrateful OP, most people don’t have the luxury of a 401k.

False. 72% of private employers offer a 401(k), and % is higher for civilian employers and gov't employers. Now - if people do not CHOOSE to set money aside, different matter. Everything is a choice.

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ebs2.htm?ref=guideline.com#ncs_nb_table1

Your entitlement is showing.

Research from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2021 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) indicates that in 2020, approximately 34.6% of working-age individuals (ages 15 to 64) owned 401(k)-style defined contribution (DC) plans.

No, your ignorance is showing. Most people have access to an employer sponsored retirement program, and most can do an IRA/Roth without additional monkeying around.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous]I find it somewhat helps if you look at your overall growth over the past 5-10 years and also look at total net assets not just equities. I think we’ve lost about 15% of total net assets just in this dive but we are still ahead of where we were a couple of years ago. Of course if it keeps gojng this way it won’t be true and I’m not as confident in the rebound this time but I guess we’ll see. I’m so cautious that I never really considered any of that money as “mine”—I always discounted out net worth by at least 20% mentally, figuring that at least some of it is bubble. [/quote]

Love the discounting idea.
Finally checked today and was pleasantly surprised to see we were only down 2% YTD, up 17% over past 365 days. I checked what is on my mutual funds and saw I am still way overweighted on US tech stocks, so I trimmed that some more. Still looking for where to reinvest. I think US is hosed for quite a while. Moved kid’s college $ to very secure account that is for kids starting college. Tempted by gold and Euro defense but worried about buying near highs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you expect that the market will further decline, it makes sense to sell now and buy it back when it gets even lower.

No that will cause a taxable event. It might be better to wait it out.

Not in a 401k.

[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.

Up 14.1%? What are you invested in? I thought I was doing well at - 2%! Of course it is now almost a week later. Would love an update!

[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.

It assumes a lot of things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I retired 10 months ago, with no pension .

But I am sitting tight.

My financial advisor had me set aside two years of cash-equivalent funds, in the event of a market turn down.

That was smart. I need to do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was at mid $2million, thought I'd be at $3million in another 5 years.

I have a years salary sitting in cash, but so, so worried. I'm am going to lose my job and not be able to find another.

I haven't checked since last week. Will wait until Friday night, so if I lose a nights sleep at least it won't affect work.

Life was feeling pretty good. I've sacrificed and worked so hard for everything. I may not have been living in the rust belt but I'm a normal middle class person who just worked really, really hard.

I detest that man.

Times like these in the market are how you make your money.

Market is on a 20% off sale. Keep buying.

Oh the buy the dip BS. Because we all cashed out and are just waiting to reinvest. Because we all know this is the bottom?

And while I'm not the OP, you have no idea why she has $2M. I have more than I would have had because my parents died. Or maybe they just put away the max amount each year. Or maybe they didn't have kids.

Absolutely buy the dip. The market will have another all time high - be in in 1 year, 5 years, etc.

As another poster said, the stocks you buy today will be the money you’ll be living off of in 30 years, even if you’re near retirement age.

And if you’re near retirement age, I suggest the bucket approach:

1) 2-3 years of expenses in cash and cash equivalents.
2) 2-5 years of expenses in short - medium term bonds.
3) rest in stocks.

https://www.morningstar.com/portfolios/bucket-approach-building-retirement-portfolio

Very good. Big jump the very next day (Wednesday). I sold some Thursday, apparently a lot of people did.

[Anonymous]

Stay the course. You will probably make up the losses by the end of this year.

[Anonymous]

Everyone ends up doing similar and you have to read the market knowing this. When you want to buy most people do too when you sell most do too

You either have to hold long term and just see how lucky you get when you need the money, take some liquid and hold it till things stabilize or be very savvy and research your heart out and play like a pro. Best thing typically is to divest. Some of this, some of that. Understand this is gambling. You aren't gonna win every game, you just have to win enough build your wealth little by little - you win buy strategic moves. Or - you just grind it out. There's not that many ways of doing well - the market is the market and you have limited options unless you can read the future!

[Anonymous]

I stopped spending anything extra.

I'm quite happy to see Target stock down ten weeks in a row. DEI is good for business. Too bad the MAGA drank the Koolaid. Hope they enjoy their failed businesses, decreased retirement, and axed Medicaid/Social Security--and the more expensive cars. They are definitely winners.

[Anonymous]

Trump doesn't care about people with traditional retirement savings in 401(k) and IRA plans. We are all just peasants to him. But it looks like Bill Ackman was able to capitalize on the market gyrations earlier this week, so as long as the rich market manipulators make out OK, and American money keeps flowing to Israel, the rest of us can see the reputation of our country trashed and our life savings destroyed.