We are quite happy with our 401K - sm
Posted By: It all depends on 2009-03-21
In Reply to: Ha ha! You said it! I keep getting these -(sm) - Topaz
unlike many others we only lost 25% (about $100K). We are still relatively young, DH is 49, so have time for it to recoup. We have a Fidelity fund with 4 mutual funds and one bond market fund (that money is totally safe). In the last downfall of stocks about 5 or so years ago we lost $30K which recouped pretty quick. Though I don't see our boucing back for a while, we continue to put over $11K into it. Prices are low so in the long run we will do well. I think it all depends on who you have handling your 401K and what funds you have your money in. We are very careful and researched, etc. before opening each fund we have. Started with 2, and now have the 4 mutual funds and the one bond fund. At one point we were earning almost $800 a month in interest in the bond fund, of course that is not the case right now but at least it is still earning us about $300 a month now. It helps that my DHs father lives and breathes the financial markets, has a great broker himself, and passes the info onto us. He has never been wrong so far. it is a great way to make more money but you have got to start when you are 20 or so, the only way to actually have a substantial amount saved by the time you hit 65.
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401K what to do?
Should DH cash it in or wait it out?
I have no idea about these kinds of things so please speak simple to me.
yes, we can have up to 3 loans with our 401k
and we can barrow no more than half of what is in it. We have 5 years to pay it off. Unless we are using it to buy our primary residence then we have 15 years. What I worry about most with that is making my paycheck too thin. They are already taking out 75 a week for health insurance, 56 for the loan, 20 for a spending account I have, plus 45 to 50 for my contribution to the 401k, 3% of my pay/per pay period.
I had also thought about barrowing against it to pay off my morguage. I owe somewhere between 7000 and 8000 at 6% interest. I went to bankrate.com and did a loan calculator and they estimated 75 per paycheck. I pay 333 a month now. It would be less a month if i did that and that would make me an official home owner, boy that would feel good.
Also the scary thing is, too many people pay off their cc only to run them up again. Once my retirement money is gone, it is gone then what
401K contributions
WIth all this talk about losing money in our 401K did anyone stop making contributions to their 401K? I'm not sure what is the right thing to do. I look at mine and I'm losing money (not as much as some because I am conservative but losing is losing) so I wonder if I should still be even putting money in it. Thoughts?
You had $400K in your 401K?
And how did you lose only 25%? If you had it mostly in bonds, how did you ever get it way up to $400K? After over 30 years doing MT, mine was almost going to reach $100K. Then the stock market tanked, and it's got less than $50K in it now. If the loss continues at the same rate, it'll be at $0 by about Nov. or Dec.
THAT'S why I'm not wasting any more of my hard-earned money in the stock market. Over my lifetime I've contributed more to the retirement fund than it currently has in it. I'd have been better off stuffing it under my mattress all these years.
Agree with poster above. DO NOT take $ out of 401K...sm
>> My H wants to take 15k out of his 401k and be done with it. He says we are still young and we can still make it up. >>
I was watching Suze Orman's show recently, and she had someone who wanted to do this. The woman was in her early 30s and wanted to take money out of her 401K to pay off $22,000 in cc debt, just to be rid of it.
Suze said NO, and here's why - taking money out of a 401K now, instead of at retirement, means you'll have to pay penalties (state and federal) plus taxes which will equal about 35%. So in order to end up with $22,000 (to pay off her cc debt), she would actually need to take out about $35,000 from the 401K! So it would cost her $13,000 to pay off that $22,000. Not worth it.
And if that isn't bad enough, look at what you lose by not having that $35,000 in your 401K for the next 30-40 years, earning money for you like it should be. At at average rate of return, that $35,000 would turn into around $353,000! So that's what it's *really* costing you. Tell your husband that and see if he still wants to do it. ;o)
Suze said we need to stop looking at our 401Ks like their our piggy banks/savings accounts. They're for us to live on in *retirement.*
I'm leaving what little I have left in my 401K for now - sm
(what's left wouldn't do me any good, anyway), with the hope that someday it will gain back some of what it lost. THEN, even though I probably still won't have as much as was in it before, I'll most likely take it ALL out of the stock market forever, and invest in something concrete, such as land (which even if it can't be sold for a profit, can be lived-on). The stock market has become so volatile and flaky that it no longer makes any more sense to put your hard-earned retirement money into that than it does to blow it all on Lottery tickets or slot machines.
Not sure what your question is? But my 401K did lose value sm
and it bothers me very much; I lost maybe 25K so it could have been worse. It forced me to diversify and take a closer look at bonds vs stocks, and other investments. Of course I would like to have more than 50K as liquidity and emergency funds, but at one time I was more than 20K in debt. This is a huge improvement in my life and a total change in mindset. It truly has created peace in my heart, to have control over what I spend and not be a tool of the consumer society that says "You are not happy unless you have the biggest, newest, brightest" thinga-mabob that we are selling this week / year / month.
You don't need to buy stuff for self-esteem. Being self sufficient lets me sleep at night.
Doesn't offend me to hear Happy Holidays, Happy Hannuka...sm
or any way someone wants to greet me. As a basic rule, people use the greeting most comfortable to the speaker. What does burn my butt is when someone tries to tell me that my comfortable greeting of "Merry Christmas" is not appropriate. To those who are not concerned with my comfort, I have no concern for theirs.
Merry Christmas to all.
Birthday wish to justme2....Happy B-day to you, happy B-day to you. now make your wish...
I wanted to wish you a very Happy B-Day...I am aging so tomorrw I may forget or at least remember at midnight...LOL...to all you celebrating B-Days this month, Congrats
Happy Bikrthday to me, happy birthday
Unbelievable, I have reached the age of 65- where did the years go?? I would retire but gosh, darn just love this work so much, want to keep on working. Hubs had me a delicious huge chocolate cake this morning and daughter coming over for pizza tonight, oh forgot working today also but like I said, hard to give this terrific life up, that is a life in between my working!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU. Hope it is a good one. nm
nm
Happy Birthday to you, then you can wish me a happy birthday on Friday! sm
Aquarians Rule!!!!! LOL
Most men would be happy for a new toy.
My sister got me a toy many moons ago, I named it gumby. My son was 2 at the time and found it DURING a dinner party I was having. He ran into the room waving "gumby" over his head yelling that everyone should look at this sword. My mouth hit the floor and my friends just about peed in their pants laughing. :-)
Happy 4th everyone!!! (sm)
If you're off, have a wonderful day and enjoy it for all of us. If you're working (like me), I hope we can keep productive and make it through another day with little or no downtime. Again, Happy 4th of July!!!!
happy for you!
congratulations! I hope to be debt free myself one of these days, and once I get out of debt, to be smart enough to stay out!
Enjoy the good feeling that you are getting out of all your hard work! 
***** LOL, that should say I think you CAN be happy... ****
Sorry, didn't get enough sleep lastnight and it has been a long day already. My 2 month old is not feeling well.
Happy 62 B-Day to you! nm
!
Happy. nm
s
I'm so happy
What great news. I hope she stays on the right track. I'll continuing sending prayers.
They look so happy!
Are they all from the same litter? Brothers and sisters? Come on....tell us a little more about them! They must be quite the handful!
Looks like a happy pup to me!
You know your dog better than anyone, and you know if he's happy. My mom had a dog that would bark over every little thing and it made me not want to visit her. It hurt my ears so bad I almost couldn't stand it. She would put a bark collar on her when guests came over to spare them the assault on their ears, and we all appreciated it, let me tell you! She tried several other methods, but they just didn't work on her dog. Dogs are all different, just like kids.
I used to live in a duplex and the people next door had the most horrible barking dogs. It really made my time in that place miserable. I was pregnant and tired all the time but could not get a nap to save my life because of those darn dogs! The owners have a responsibilty to the neighbors to keep their dogs fairly quiet in my opinion. I am an animal lover (also a long-time vegetarian), but those dogs grated on my last animal-loving nerve! Keep taking good care of your dog - he looks quite content and loved to me!
I think you should be happy
because there is a clinical reason for your troubles and those can be managed with meds and behavioral strategies. Best of luck to you. Please don't let it get you down. Better days are ahead. BELIEVE ME!
Wow! I'd be happy with
half of that!
We did get one snow here in NC that was close to 20 inches, and it was lots of fun, but also challenging because it happened all at once, just like you got, and regular cars can't drive until it's been cleared. Now up in WI, the plows would be on top of it immediately, but here in NC, homeowners were having to use shovels. It was like caveman days for about 4 days here! LOL.
You will be happy to know.....SM
That I called another Kohl's about a half hour away from me yesterday. They had the exact number of plates I needed, as well as other pieces............at 80% off, so I went ahead and got them.
Happy B-Day to me...Happy B-Day to me
Well, I just wanted to share that with all of you wonderful people.
Happy B-Day to you x66, and many, many more..
Wow,
Happy Birthday..and enjoy it to the fullest. Hope it is a very pleasant one...
No, actually I am not happy - sm
I did not ask you to stop "gaming," I simply said there may be a solution to allow 2 Gab Boards so everyone is happy.
Moderator
How do we know you are really happy? lol
x
Happy M-day to me
Okay, I'm not a mom but I wish I was. Now I'm just too old to be one (I've lost every bit of patience for small children and getting ready for menopause (and no adoption is out). However, every time I see a small child my heart aches for the child I never had. So many mother's days gone by. No cards, no flowers. No child to wrap their little arms around my neck and say I love you. Spent most of my years going out to brunches to celebrate my mom, my grandma, my DH's grandma and mom, my sister-in-law with her 2 small children. My heart aches for what I never had and never will have. Now my DH kisses me and says happy mother's day from the Cat. Well I'm not as sad as I used to be. Took my sisters son to realize that I no longer want children (that and the Menendez brothers HA HA). So it's happy mother's day to me from the cat, who wakes me up in the morning by jumping on my pillow and rubbing her head against mine saying "wake up mommie, I'm hungry", then runs in front of me watching me to make sure I follow her to the kitchen. While working she will sit on my desk reaching out to touch me fingers while I type away on the keyboard. So happy m-day to me.
Happy B-day to you !
Be grateful you made it this far when so many others have not. Appreciate each day and live life to the fullest!
no, happy mt, they all come HERE and do that. (nm)
Is this not the dump board to them??
Thanks Happy MT...sm
The economy excuse would not be far from the truth either. Just was not sure if it would sound too cliche these days. It really is a good time to bring it up to her. You are so right about Christmas being much more relaxing without gift exchange. My friend is the only person I buy for; everyone else in my life is an adult, so they get stiffed!  But at least Christmas is mostly stress-free. Thanks for replying.
happy for you
So glad to hear you got the good news. I have spent much of today worrying about the same as we have a sister who is with one of the chrysler dealers that is closing, and a son-in-law, and 2 very good friends who could be out of luck with GM closures. So far no word from any of them. I am very happy to hear that someone was on the side that had the good fortune to remain open. Good luck to you and your husband.
Happy B-day!
You are not expecting too much to expect your parents and your long term boyfriend to remember this special day in your life. I would probably give my boyfriend the silent treatment and when he says what is wrong say did you forget what day it was. My b-day. He will probably feel an inch tall then. Go to Dairy Queen and splurge on calories. You deserve it!
Happy Children
You don't know me or my children so you can't have any idea if they are happy or not.
And they are, very happy. They don't complain, they do what is needed and they have their activities, work, school, etc. They have great social lives and live life very fully, but with the expectation that things are done a certain way and if they aren't,there are reperucussions.
See my post above in a new thread, if you expect little, you get litte. It's that simple.
Yes, happy birthday.
nm
Happy Birthday sm
We bought a birthday cake with Happy Birthday Jesus on it and sang happy birthday. Our 7-year-old loved it!
That goes for me 2 !! Well done, and happy birthday. NM
x
That is great, happy for you.
If I had the choice to keep my ovaries, I too would do it in a heartbeat.
Happy Valentines Day
http://www1.yahoo.americangreetings.com/display.pd?bfrom=1&prodnum=3117214&path=40795
Happy birthday to me, happy birthday
Yes today is my hmmmmmm, 39 and holding at this time but my wonderful hubby had dozen red roses sitting on my desk this morning when I first opened the door. How sweet was that! I adore this man and could not ask for more!
Hey, happy birthday!
 Doncha just love getting flowers?! Happy birthday and here's to many more!
Happy Birthday!
I am 39 too. I think I am done with birthday's, but will not refuse roses! I hear 50 is the new 30 so does that make 40 the new 20? If so maybe I will have just one more. LOL Anyway Happy Birthday! Have a wonderful day!
Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday to You!
Get plastered, you.........(bad guuurrlll), Happy Birthday to You! (like the real birthday song ya' know). I know, I'm corny! LOL - Have a good one! Loving hubby, too! You go girl!!!!! Have fun! 
Happy Birthday to you - - - - - -
:)
make that 3...it's my Happy Day too!~ sm
May this year be filled with blessings for both of you!!
Happy birthday to all 3 of ya! nm
x
Happy Feet
My daughters just got done watching it. They loved it. From what I saw in between working it was a cute movie. But you're right, isn't it great to not have to pay for a rental, especially if the movie ends up being a dud? Better than paying the $8.75 at the theaters too.
Happy - very light
nm
Happy Mother's Day
!
Happy Mother's Day everyone! sm
I hope you have a WONDERFUL day!
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