Jesus H......

Is anyone besides me following the daily stock market and getting literally 
sick to your stomach over your losses in your retirement money or investment 
accounts? This daily 3-5% drop in value is getting unbearable, but I don't 
know what else to do but wait it out at this point. I've lost nearly as much 
money in my 401(k) in the last 4 months (on paper) as I used to make in 
almost a whole frigging year! When is this shite going to end? Who can I aim 
my gunsights at to blame? 

"Indigo" <nobody@spamcop.net> wrote in message 
news:fr4pr6$gtj$1@news.spamcop.net...
> Is anyone besides me following the daily stock market and getting 
> literally sick to your stomach over your losses in your retirement money 
> or investment accounts? This daily 3-5% drop in value is getting 
> unbearable, but I don't know what else to do but wait it out at this 
> point. I've lost nearly as much money in my 401(k) in the last 4 months 
> (on paper) as I used to make in almost a whole frigging year! When is this

> shite going to end? Who can I aim my gunsights at to blame?

I can't look. There's nothing I can do about it anyway, but I'm beginning to 
wonder if it will ever recover in time for me to actually retire someday. 
My old 401k is just sitting there, and I haven't started a new one at this 
new job because I don't plan to be there very long (if I can help it). 

In article <fr4pr6$gtj$1@news.spamcop.net>,
 "Indigo" <nobody@spamcop.net> wrote:

> Is anyone besides me following the daily stock market and getting literally

> sick to your stomach over your losses in your retirement money or
investment 
> accounts?

   That's why you're not supposed to watch it, especially if you're risk 
averse enough that it makes you sick to see such losses.
-- 

"Heidi" <nobody@spamcop.net> wrote in message 
news:fr4rgr$nd3$1@news.spamcop.net...
>
> I can't look. There's nothing I can do about it anyway, but I'm beginning 
> to wonder if it will ever recover in time for me to actually retire 
> someday.

It will eventually recover, it always does. It's the lost earnings 
(dividends) in between that's going to really hurt us. And any day now my 
old 401(k) is going to roll over into an IRA, at least I can buy the exact 
amount of shares in the same funds and wait it out, unlike the last time 
when we switched providers and they didn't offer the same funds and my 
losses went from paper to real. I had a very nice investment plan set up 
with a good diversified fund set for when I got the rollover money, but 
that's out the window for the time being. I put 70% of my money overseas, 
and that worked for quite a while, but now the whole world economy is 
getting killed by the rise in oil and commodity prices. Wheat and corn 
doubled in the last six months, for instance, thank Bush and his misguided 
ethanol plan for the corn debacle. What REALLY sucks is that oil inventories 
are at a near high, but oil futures speculators are making a killing off the 
backs of the working class. There really oughta be a law.....

> My old 401k is just sitting there, and I haven't started a new one at this

> new job because I don't plan to be there very long (if I can help it).
>
Do they offer a free match? You should at minimum contribute whatever they 
match. At our age we need to save every penny we can. 

"David Dean" <v8ltfuv02@sneakemail.com> wrote in message 
news:v8ltfuv02-DB3682.09132511032008@65-100-143-10.hlrn.qwest.net...
> In article <fr4pr6$gtj$1@news.spamcop.net>,
> "Indigo" <nobody@spamcop.net> wrote:
>
>> Is anyone besides me following the daily stock market and getting 
>> literally
>> sick to your stomach over your losses in your retirement money or 
>> investment
>> accounts?
>
>   That's why you're not supposed to watch it, especially if you're risk
> averse enough that it makes you sick to see such losses.
> -- 

I don't feel that I have much choice as far as being in riskier investments, 
I started saving for retirement really late in life and didn't have much to 
show for it after the first 6 years (only $22k that turned into $10k after 
the 2000 bubble burst). In that light, you could say that I really didn't 
start saving until the year 1996 when I switched jobs at age 36. That's 
REALLY REALLY late to start off on your retirement savings.

What really frustrates me is that I have found it impossible to find out 
what my cost basis is for what I own now. The quarterly statements don't 
show anything but beginning/ending balances in cash value for each fund 
held. I recently bought Quicken 2008, and all of my 401(k) transactions 
occurring prior to 1/1/08 do not include the requisite info in the data 
downloads to figure out how much you spent on what (you can see shares 
purchased and the cost of said shares but not what fund they were bought 
in). I blame that on the 401(k) company for not maintaining good electronic 
records.

In any case, I know that I'm severely unbalanced, that's why I've been 
watching and waiting to make changes. Looks like we're having a nice dead 
cat bounce today in the market, but it would be lunacy to be moving money 
around in this kind of unstable environment.