So what to do with 401k money

[jtfreels]

A "simple" question, so now what to do about 401K contributions?
Keep on keeping on in hopes things pick up in the optimistic 10 years I have left to work?

Stop contributing (all matching done my employer has been stopped) and ....
put the money in a savings account
buy gold
bury it in a tin can in the back yard?

(of course stocking up on anti zombie ammo and snow tires first)

Jay

[tabs]

Hookers and Blow....might as well

[masraum]

keep putting in, seems like there are 2 options. Stocks go back up. That means that you bought at the bottom, or the country collapses, in which case it won't matter anyway.

[Jim Richards]

Originally Posted by jtfreels

A "simple" question, so now what to do about 401K contributions?
Keep on keeping on in hopes things pick up in the optimistic 10 years I have left to work?

That's my strategy. Along with plenty of post-tax saving/investing.

[pwd72s]

Originally Posted by masraum

keep putting in, seems like there are 2 options. Stocks go back up. That means that you bought at the bottom, or the country collapses, in which case it won't matter anyway.

Good points made here...

[Hugh R]

I'm still contributing, but I have enough in stocks, I'll be putting my $16.5K this year in PIMCO

[epbrown]

I try not to eat anything before looking at my statements because I get a little queasy, but I'm still contributing. I recovered after the 80s, I recovered after the millenium, I'll recover after this. Only thing that sucks is I do a build-and-scrape plan and I was so close to a scrape when this happened.

[TimT]

I was so close to a scrape when this happened.

Werd...

I missed by a few months

let it ride...

[jtfreels]

I think masraum summed up my feelings very well "That means that you bought at the bottom, or the country collapses, in which case it won't matter anyway. "

I was just discussing this my 24 yo son over dinner, told him all this reminds me of a zombie movie

He add asked me why I was watching the news so much, did I WANT to be depressed.

Jay

[Jim Richards]

Originally Posted by Hugh R

I'm still contributing, but I have enough in stocks, I'll be putting my $16.5K this year in PIMCO

Hugh, aren't you in the age group that can do the catch-up contributions?

[Hugh R]

Yeah I am in the age when I can do the catch-up contribution I just turned 55. If I have extra around, I may well do that. I had a goodly amount in personal retirement funds, and most of it is in the toilet. Like have a mill. down.

[on2wheels52]

Originally Posted by Hugh R

Yeah I am in the age when I can do the catch-up contribution I just turned 55. If I have extra around, I may well do that. I had a goodly amount in personal retirement funds, and most of it is in the toilet. Like have a mill. down.

Welcome to the club (just turned 56). I try to look at it as most of it was 'paper profit', this is just a paper loss.
Good advice on not watching the news, haven't watched fo ryears.
Jim

[on2wheels52]

Originally Posted by Hugh R

Yeah I am in the age when I can do the catch-up contribution I just turned 55. If I have extra around, I may well do that. I had a goodly amount in personal retirement funds, and most of it is in the toilet. Like have a mill. down.

Welcome to the club (just turned 56). I try to look at it as most of it was 'paper profit', this is just a paper loss.
Good advice on not watching the news, haven't watched for years.
Jim

[bonkers]

Originally Posted by jtfreels

A "simple" question, so now what to do about 401K contributions?
Keep on keeping on in hopes things pick up in the optimistic 10 years I have left to work?

Stop contributing (all matching done my employer has been stopped) and ....
put the money in a savings account
buy gold
bury it in a tin can in the back yard?

(of course stocking up on anti zombie ammo and snow tires first)

Jay

Leave it alone and put more in.. as much as you can afford to.

You wait for the sales to go buy big ticket items, right? Well stocks and funds are on sale right now. I'm buying in both with my 401k and with a portion of my savings.

Figure it will take 2-5 years for the market to recover to the point where you'd want to sell - so anything you put in will be locked up for that long - but when it does recover, you'll have a nice little nest egg.

Just remember this sucky feeling when the market recovers and your 401k looks good again and at that point rebalance your portfolio away from stocks if you have less than a decade until retirement. Risk is for us young folk.

Disclaimer: I am not a financial expert, just a guy who reads and thinks too much.

[Jim Richards]

+1

[cgarr]

Put more in! If you wanted to stop contributing you should have done that 2 years ago when the units were expensive, now is the time to buy, its cheap, or a lot cheaper.

[targa911S]

If you aren't going to need it in say 5-7 years,..let it ride.

[carr914]

Lotto Tickets

[fredmeister]

I still think hookers and crack is more fun.....you know what they say about getting f$%^ed, you might as well enjoy it too.
Or buy a sniper rifle and take out Maddoff, do the world a favor. Write a book about it and make more money.

[azasadny]

Buy ammo...