(no subject)

[arethinn]

In the year 2007, I put $4800 into my freshly minted retirement account.

How much do you think it was worth at the end of the year?

$4,799.78.

...D'OH!

That'll happen with investments, though.

To look at it positively, what happened is that in a wobbly market with a shitty dollar, they held the value rather than lost anything significant (it's not like a bank account which can only increase and is insured). I've only had the account six months, anyway. I'm just amused that it was twenty-two cents.

Comments

[silussa.livejournal.com]

There will also be years where it will go up substantially. My 401(k) has tended to average overall about 10%.

Of course, it IS pretty aggressive. But aggressive my way, not someone's standardized one. Works well thus far.

[baxil.livejournal.com]

Do you have any sort of control over the investment, like an IRA? Or is it some big collective work pool thing?

Because right now, with inflation high, unemployment rising, and denials about the recession starting to wash away, you really want to diversify. Exchange traded funds (ETFs) for resources (crops, uranium, gold, oil) are looking very good, as are foreign bonds for currencies that aren't in continuing free fall.

(YMMV. Talk to your broker or other professional before making any investments.)

[starlightforest.livejournal.com]

It's a 403b, which I guess is an IRA. It's all in a pre-mix target-maturity stock/bond mutual thing. I could withdraw from that and micromanage it as much as I wished, but I don't really wish.

[talonstrike.livejournal.com]

My investment account is currently worth 15% less than I've put into it, but I'm quite cheerful about that fact. Here's the way I see it: the market is tumbling, stocks are falling, we're heading into a recession. So long as I can keep my job and income stable, I'm going to keep buying in as prices fall. The stock market is effectively having a big sale right now. Stock up and save (pun half intended). I'm buying an equal dollar amount of stock each month (dollar cost averaging), and as long as the market keeps falling, I will be getting more and more for my money each month. Because I believe the market will recover *eventually*, I'm happy for it to drop as much as it wants to in the short term to give me the opportunity to buy in for cheap -- keeps my costs down and increases my profits over the long run as things improve on the other side of the recession. :)

[lupabitch.livejournal.com]

*nods* While I'm still a relative newbie to investing, most of the books I've read have had examples of people who held onto what they had even through market slumps, and focused on the long run rather than panicking in the short-term. And buying in for cheap = good stuff.

[gesigewigus.livejournal.com]

Does America offer guaranteed growth retirement plans?

Not to sounds ignorant, but all my yankee friends have accounts (it seems) like yours, where it is the whim of the market dictating their future.

Where as in Canada, I have a retirement plan with a set interest rate, that will continue to grow at that rate, no matter what the market does.

[elethian.livejournal.com]

Does America offer guaranteed growth retirement plans?

I've never heard of such a thing, so I'm going to guess no. Infinite growth can only result from infinite inflation anyway, can't it?