"Jim" wrote in message
m...
nom=de=plume wrote:
"Jim" wrote in message
m...
nom=de=plume wrote:
"Jim" wrote in message
...
Jim wrote:
wf3h wrote:
On Oct 12, 11:40 am, Jim wrote:
wf3h wrote:
On Oct 12, 10:55 am, Canuck57 wrote:
His achievement was $1.3 trillion debt-corruption-spend in only 8
months. Guinness Book of records material perhaps?-
what's really a record is how quickly george bush and his rich
free
market friends stole my 401K
So sorry for your loss. Too bad you don't have at least some
control of
your 401. You might look at fixing that instead of blaming the
boogyman.
i did have control. i did what the right wing said to do: trust the
rich.

my corrective action is not to trust the rich anymore...you're too
stupid to learn that
Excuse me. Who lost nearly half of his portfolio? Not me.
1/3 here. I wasn't quick enough to move it.

In hindsight, when Bush made that speech a year ago, where he
said,"Because of my incredibly bad leadership, you are all ****ed," I
should have moved it right then.

I remember being amazed at that speech. I've never heard a president
panic the stock market as bad as that. I should have known what the
effects would be.

We were all taught the best tactic was to make your choices based on
the long term, don't move it around very often.

Following that advise makes it my fault I lost.

All the bitching about Obama's economy makes me wonder if anyone was
paying attention to the last 8 years.

My portfolio went down about 30%, but I didn't panic and basically
stopped looking. I finally checked last month, and I was about $200K. I
believe in dollar cost averaging, so I figured I'd be ok. I've been
using that strategy since I started earning money.

I'll second everything you said.

I now know that I should actively manage my 401, daily. Long term, yes,
but watching for a president that panics people is more important. A
financial planner I saw told me I should invest according to my risk
tolerance. Duh.

I keep moving my risk from about 6% to 30% and then back again. I'd
like to risk more, but am unsure, now, exactly how to do this managing.
It was all so much easier until a year ago when we all were hit in the
face with the realities of what can happen.

Thankfully I took personal finance in college and learned some things. I
feel badly for those who didn't attend college or didn't learn from
personal finance courses.

Those are the guys deeply in debt and can't figure out what to do about
it.


I actually don't believe in the daily management of investments. I look
once, maybe twice a quarter. If see something is out of wack with my
long-term plan, then I adjust accordingly. Otherwise, I'm loath to do
anything or make a change.

This was according to the common advice of the day. After the losses, it
was pointed out that we should all take an active interest in our
investments. It was our fault we didn't act to protect our 401s.

I lost $80,000 in a couple of days that I could have saved if I were more
on top of it. I did save another $50,000 by putting my savings plan on
stable value.

I've made some of it back. Would be in a better place if I had acted
sooner. That's the lesson, don't put it on automatic and wait some
artificial time period.

The biggest loser in my portfolio is my real
estate mutual fund. But, there's no reason to panic about it. It'll come
back eventually.

Real estate is nothing more than a Ponzi Scheme. When everyone was
refinancing weekly and buying property they couldn't possibly afford I
should have known.

It really depends on how long you have. If you're in the
later part of your working career, then you should slowly but
deliberately be moving toward a lower-risk mix of stocks, bonds, and real
property. In my case, I have (I'm hopeful) 20+ years before I'm in the
later part. I have a pretty volitile mix, but I can stand it if I don't
look too much. lol

I have a friend who has her stuff "managed" by Fidelity's program. She's
doing fine, but giving up a few percent so she doesn't have to do
anything. I'd rather do it myself (you can follow their advice without
having to pay for it with just a tiny bit of research) and save the
percent.


I decided to give my financial planner a miss. I know I have to manage my
money myself.


Oh... I see what you're saying.

--
Nom=de=Plume