Thread: what is the stock market doing to your retiremnt

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No affect so far. Started out poor, still poor.

It's killing us; we live off of ours, and the value is way down. I just hope it comes back pretty quick; I have started looking at the job market, but don't have any idea what I could do. There isn't much call for an old broken down late sixties aged lineman/construction electrician/millwright; just my age is a handicap now, even without the busted up parts. Guess I could go to "Wally World" and hand out carts.

I finally took time to look at details of the 401k yesterday. Ours is self directed within a group of funds and most of the stock funds were down between 10% and 30% for the year, but about neutral over three years. I had lost 5% in the past 3 months and we are within a few years (<5, maybe <3) of using it, so I switched the balance to the "fixed rate fund" that invests in interest bearing accounts, insurance companies, bonds, etc - the lowest risk option available to me. It has been steady at a 5%to6% return, even in this market, so I may miss out on the big upswing right after the election ....

I have to agree with Ken on this, it will come back up eventually. The problem most people have with stocks is they forget the one rule....buy LOW sell HIGH. The media hypes everything up like it's the end of the world and then a few months later they complain about high prices. I would bet my car that oil prices are gonna go up again, realestate in most major cities is gonna go up as the population grows, and companies involved in the developement of "green" technology will increase. Too many people settle on what has worked in the past and don't look forward to what our needs in the future will be.

I guess I'm young enough to take some bigger risks which puts me in a different boat than some. The Airline I work for matches what we buy so I've poured a lot into it in the last 6 years and watched the stock go from $33 to $9 and back up again every May and November as the mid and year end results come out. I watched so many people panic and sell at $9 when we were still making a profit, another story if we were losing money, but it was all media hype and then the short sellers take advantage of it by buying it all up to cover themselves.

I guess I'm saying be patient,

Sean

Diversification helps. I heard on the news a financial analyst saying people retiring this year, were rolling their 401 money into realestate. In some cases realestate funds, in others actually buying properties and renting them, using the rent money as their monthly cash, and the the property as a long term investment. Like Ken says it will come back, and short term views of the market will make you crazy. This works with most of us in the preretirement sector, but not for those who are retiring now. We are currently seeing a private financial consultant who works for fee only. She recogmended for us to convert all our single stock type investments to mutual funds, to avoid any hits. There is no simple solution.

I've been told that September is traditionaly a bad month but the way I see, it is as an oppertunity to buy good stocks at a low price so I've been buying. Heck after 2 divorces I'm lucky to still have a retirement account.