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How much patience before killing 401k?


nurkvinny

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I've been maxing mine out for almost 9 years now. I haven't changed a thing since the market tanked. I'm down close to $50K now. Do I care? Sure. Am I retiring soon? No. It will bounce back and I'll be sitting really pretty when I retire in about 20 - 25 years... :cool:
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I still contribute max on my 401k, im down about 50%. Im not too worried, I have ~30-40 years until I am retiring.

 

But I am up a boat load in my investment account. I shorted pretty much everything on the way down and now I am bargin hunting with my profits. I am continuing shorting oil/energy, casino, and finance stocks. Ill switch back to buying here soon though ~3 months.

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Pretty much anything that is backed by cash, rather than marketable securities (like stocks or mutual funds). Liquid Assets can be converted to cash easily, and usually are low risk but lower return...you'll get 1%-4% depending on the market, but the chance of your investment going DOWN is nil.

 

Vince, I would contribute 5%, and no more if you're on a budget. Even at the 4-5% level, you're making 50% every time you contribute. Think of it that way. Plus, the first 3% your making 100%. Even if the market goes down 40%, you've still made 10%-60% on your cash contributions to your 401(k). And we haven't even discussed the effects of compounding interest...

 

It's all good. Worry about something else.

 

The way I see it, if I'm putting in 7% and my company is matching 50% of that for 3.5% I'm up 3.5%. but if the market has dropped by 40%, I'm still down 36.5% or is that not really correct?

 

 

Example. for the last 12 months, I put added 3049, my employer added 1750. The loss over the 12 month period was 6535. meaning, I'm still down 1784 after both contributions.

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You have to stay in it. The market goes in cycles. I lost well over 30% but i am very aggressive in my investments. I will not give a dollar figure but i wanted to cry. One of my accounts has already started to come back, i believe that i am about 10% down. One of my others is still down over 10% but slowly coming back. Keep putting in and just close your eyes, i check mine about once every 2 to 3 months, unless there is some major market changes then maybe once a month.
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Keep it simple, remember how long you plan on being in the market. I'm 27 and probably don't plan on retiring for at least another 35-40, should I be lucky enought to live to be that old, that is when I plan on using my 401(k)/IRA. So I try to remember that I have damn near 30 years.

 

I tend to use the S&P as my gauge as to what typically happens over a 30 year time period......you have time, just remember you have time.

 

http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2008/10/27/saupload_sp500from1927_3.jpg

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