So here I sit, looking at my 401k, Do others do this or is it just me? I've got my retirement plan in front of me, so far I've put $16,000 away, make that 15, no wait $14,000 away. It's dropped big time. At one point it was loosing $400-500 a day. Now it averages about 100 bux a day loss. There are up positive days, but not many. The biggest risk one of my portfolio (SAGCX) is down 21% The rest are down around 10-12%. Except one (SGSLX) that's up 4.21%. And how much of that do I have? It makes up less than 1% of my portfolio.
I'm young and I still have a long way to go. But my adventures into investing have not turned out too good. Much like my dealings with anything I fear I got into it, right as smart people were getting out of it. What to do now? Heck I'm not going to say no to my employer match that I get with my 401k. Even if I'm just burning it up, there's always a chance. Though right now seems like a snowball's chance in hell... it's still a chance.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
My 401k Mess
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2 comments:
No, you are not the only one that looks at it and the wants to hurl chunks. All I can say is thank gawd youth is on our side- but doesn't matter, we will have to work until we are 90 anyways because Social IN-Security will be LONG gone!
I had a 401K once. Cashed it in when it was time. I just don't like other people making my investments on my behalf. Plus a 401K commits money to a certain established track, a track from which they cannot deviate - and the way profits and collapses and buyouts occur, their format is too rigid for intelligent investing.
One company I worked for had a profit-sharing plan. I bought lots of stock with them. When I left, it was turned over to me (and Merrill Lynch - long before the do-it-yerself brokerages). Well, I watched this stock very carefully. The company kept diversifying, going into things that they knew nothing about, trying to cover all bases in the retail market. I traded that stock for - Medical Supply stock. (My reasoning - Times are good - people buy new toys to play with and get hurt = Medical Supplies. Times are bad, people are jumping out of windows = Medical Supplies.) Sure enough, the first company went out of business, while my second company split, and split again, and I made a profit.
If you are going to play the stock market - or the bond market, or the commodities market - don't let anyone else do it FOR you, with money that you cannot move or take out if they start screwing up. That's like signing over to a legislator your paycheck every month and saying, "go ahead - I know you won't build a bureaucracy with this".
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