During the month of Aug I have lost $4,000 in just ONE retirement account

[Omaha Steve]

I hope those Teabaggers that cheered the downgrade have a much bigger portfolio than mine.

OS

[elleng]

1. Not good, but there's a decent chance some of it will return.

I lost about $3000 initially, some replaced, some lost again; markets move.

[givemebackmycountry]

2. Same here Steve...

Seems like it happened overnight to me.
Sad part is, I've been down this road before.
I'm up.
I'm down.
I'm holding steady.

HEY I GOT AN IDEA!
LET'S TRY THIS SHIT WITH OUR SOCIAL SECURITY!
Assholes.

Hope you are well my Brother.
Hope you are well.

[Firebrand Gary]

3. Email the NRA and tell them because of the Tea Party you cannot stock up on guns this year.

[Warpy]

4. I lost well into six figures of paper "worth"

but my income from it has not gone down.

I suspect I'll lose a lot more. Sic transit glorious money.

And no, I'm not upset. I'm not planning on using my net worth to leverage as much in debt in order to mimic the lifestyles of, if not the rich, the executive class.

The cheerleader teabaggers have nothing but pensions, a little savings in CDs (if they haven't put it all in the Goldline scam) and social security checks.

[bluestate10]

27. I see baggers sitting in their lawn chairs. I talk to baggers.

I feel sorry for the damned fools. Their votes screw them and help people in my class, and I care more about that being unfair than they do. One characteristic that I see in baggers is profound ignorance.

[Warpy]

29. I don't feel a bit sorry for them

I'm deeply angry that they're hell bent on dragging all of us down the pan in order to enrich a few men they don't even realize exist.

It's not just ignorance, it's willful ignorance. They don't want to know. They hear stuff on the radio and they swallow it and then spew it out at anyone within range. They are what is wrong with the whole human race and why we'll be back to the trees in another million years.

[Bonhomme Richard]

5. My retirement is in real estate and it is going nowhere but down. n/t

[girl gone mad]

6. The downrade was insignificant.

It has more to do with the meltdown in Europe and our own grim economic picture, which spending cuts will only worsen.

[Bluebear]

7. Indeed

[Blue_In_AK]

8. We lost about $60,000 in 2007-2008

early on as things were on the way down. We took the remainder out of the stock market and have most of it in cash now. We probably could have earned some of that back if we hadn't gotten nervous, but the peace of mind is worth something.

[SoCalDem]

18. We lost close to $28K

We transferred everything that was left into the "safest" , but even at best, we would probably get no better than a "D" from Suze Ormand. My husband has never worker anywhere that offered a pension, meant that we had to do it all on our own. He's has only had an option of a 401-k for about 12 years, so setting up a lavish retirement has been unattainable for us. We will just muddle through with fingers crossed, like millions of others..

[bluestate10]

26. I had paper losses of $200,000 during that period and did nothing.

My portfolio is 20% larger than it has ever been. So be it. Life is life, I have more immediate pursuits that are of interest to me.

[gateley]

9. Ditto - they just won't "get it" until it affects them. I'm so sorry, Omaha Steve. nt

[Coyote_Bandit]

10. Ummmm......

I've lost far more than that liquidating savings because I don't have a fucking job and can't find one. Anybody who has a job that pays a living wage is in far better position. Pain depends on point of view.

[ShockediSay]

11. So how' the Bush tax cuts working out for you all? And forgetting big government for a minute,

how's big corporate running your life these days?

[Uben]

12. To us, it's losing living standards. To the rich....

...it's just numbers. While those numbers are real and represent lost assets, it does not affect their standard of living like it does the middle class and retirees. They don't stay up at night and worry if they should sell now and put it somewhere safer.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

13. I'm not even looking at my 401K statements.

It's not a loss until you have to cash in, and I hope not to have to do that any time soon. But just imagine if the privatizers had put Social Security in the stock market. Maybe the silver lining (if any) in all this is to remind people that the stock market is not a good, reliable place for retirement money. I'm still pissed off that my old defined benefit pension was frozen a few years ago and we got stuck with a 401K instead (I know, better than nothing, and I'm of course glad to have any kind of pension). Seems to me that the whole idea of those plans was just to make money for Wall Street.

[seabeyond]

19. i am not looking either. we lost a lot the last big one and made me sick....

got it back though. so this one i am not looking.

[RebelOne]

14. I was laid off my job in 2010.

Fortunately, I was collecting social security. But my 401K and IRA were both losing money. So I cashed both in and put the money in a savings account. It is not earning too much interest, but at least the monthly statements do not show a loss.

[gateley]

15. Good move. nt

[bluestate10]

28. The rule is that people at retirement age should be all in savings or high grade bonds. nt

[kestrel91316]

16. What's a retirement account??

:rofl: :cry:

[madrchsod]

17. that `s your contribution to the "shared sacrifice"

mine is never getting a social security cost of living raise.

[JoePhilly]

20. Questions ...

1) How much are you down from this date last year, or the year before, or from 2000. If you are a long term investor, you examine all of these.

2) What is your time horizon? Personally, I track my investments on quarters, the last 12 months, and then full years. And so, quarterly I re-balance.

So I do agree that, on paper, the Tea Party just made a huge mess. And their goal is to hold the economy hostage.

And so if you are in a situation in which you need liquid assets, then you need less in stocks and more in safe, cash-like investments.

What the Tea Party did (are doing) is creating opportunities for the long term investor.

[eppur_se_muova]

21. I hope they don't.

That way, they just *might* learn something. But I wouldn't hold my breath.

[MilesColtrane]

22. It's only lost if you plan on cashing out tomorrow.

If you are retiring soon you shouldn't have a significant amount of your IRA/401K in equities.

The closer you are to retirement, the less exposure you should have to the stock market.

[pengillian101]

24. Exactly what I thought and did...reinvested my 401K.

"If you are retiring soon you shouldn't have a significant amount of your IRA/401K in equities.
The closer you are to retirement, the less exposure you should have to the stock market."

***********
When the news first broke last month, it scared me silly, as I just took a huge hit. I have ridden this 401K for maybe 25 years. Up, down, all around. Served me very well overall. But, now that I am 60, I no longer am willing to be in 100% high-risk small company stocks.

A financial adviser I trust came to visit and now I am in an Annuity fund - 75% safe and 25% risk. We'll see in the next quarterly statement, eh?

My best to all! :hi:

[SheilaT]

23. What's the percentage you've lost?

That's much more meaningful than a dollar amount.

In recent weeks I'm down about 10% in my investments, but I'm not terribly concerned about it. Earlier this year I was up by much more than that, so I took a little of my profits. Meanwhile, I live a quiet, reasonably frugal life, don't plan to collect social security until at least age 66, preferably age 70. Right now I am just working part time, because I can manage on part time, and prefer to have a simpler life instead of being crazed by a full-time job.

[bluestate10]

25. I have seen recent $40,000 dollar swings in mine month to month.

I don't loose sleep over the swings. I don't have immediate use for the money and have no plans to ever stop working.