What are you doing with your 401k?

Haven't seen a topic addressing this specific question, and please, let's keep the politics/blame out of this. But watching my balance take some big hits, and with only about 10 years to go (hopefully) until retirement, I'm starting to wonder if I should do something to stop the bleeding or ride out the current storm?

Thoughts (especially from those of you with background in economics)?

 

Sitting in a guaranteed 3% fund since October 1st and not going anywhere.

 

I checked mine this weekend - I went 100% cash on November 9th.

It's really a lousy strategy most times... a large part of the gains over the decades are made in single, huge days... And the other problem is when I don't know when to get back in - there's never a buzzer that goes off.

In this particular case, it's done well. I think this market is special - I *still* don't think the bloodletting is done in the financial sector. I don't trust anything the financial big boys say, nor do I trust their balance sheets.

 

My 401k has all the money I'll ever need when I retire. Unless I need to, you know, buy something.

 

I agree. The financial guys are the same as the touts screaming, "I have a three team parlay". All full of shit.

 

I converted my mutuel funds to gold mining stock and buried it in the backyard.

 

What's a 401k?

 

Is it worth having a 401K in this market if you're only 23 years old?

 

Always. The sooner, the better.

 

At this point, think you need to ride it out. Otherwise, you're basically signing up to lock in a 15% hit, which is about what the Dow is down from its high.

At some point down the road, it's going to get that 15% back, and if you've stepped aside, you're going to miss out on that rebound.

Now, once you get to about 5 years from retirement, I would definitely start to ramp up the cash and bonds percentages in your account.

 

Slaps head.

Does your employer match funds? If they match 25 cents on the dollar, that's a 25% return. Most match 50 cents to the dollar.

Is this really rocket science?

 

Yeah, but it's gonna cut into his drinking money.