Who has invested in their 401k over the last 20 years (55, financial advisor)

[midlifeman]

Are you happy with what you have earned? Was it worth it to buy and hold in a diversified portfolio? (maybe a little rebalancing) What would you do differently? Do you fee that this was the best strategy to secure your retirement?

[Huckleberry3911948]

heavily. but then i rolled 401k and 457k into a buyback.(purchase of prior years of service with a related agency) best move i ever made.
did you want fries with that?

[mathjak107]

Originally Posted by midlifeman

Are you happy with what you have earned? Was it worth it to buy and hold in a diversified portfolio? (maybe a little rebalancing) What would you do differently? Do you fee that this was the best strategy to secure your retirement?

did it and dont regret it for a second. even if you did nothing more than just a s&p 500 fund over that time frame long term it worked out very well.

for me it started out with the stock market crash of 87 and total panic just after i got in. nothing looked worse. we had 26% evaporate in one session. that was followed by a huge real estate crash here in nyc. we then had russia crumbling financially, south america defaulting and a host of other lousy stuff for the markets happening.

i doubted for decades if thats where i wanted to be. well like they say markets love a wall of worry and while i started at dow 2000 we stand today at 11,000 including the lost decade.


i wouldnt just do that but im just saying time lets all asset classes eventually have their day in the sun.

since we dont know what tomorrow will look like its hard to say what to change but i think whatever you do the key is sticking with the plan.

[Curmudgeon]

Did and self managed it so I avoided the market falls of the latter part of the late 90s and the 2000s by shifting funds from stocks to bonds, back again and ultimately parking them in safer savings program funds available under the overall plan prior to retirement when I knew my recovery time would be short and tenuous were I to take any major hits. Ultimately rolled the funds into an IRA after I retired as it was even more manageable for us and less labor intensive. The end result was that we lost not a cent and actually made money. It permitted us a major, long-distance move and home retirement home purchase a bit over two years ago.

Funny this subject came up and my wife and I were "reviewing" and discussing that investment "history" just last night and now that those funds have gone into our home and move I expressed relief at no longer really following the market as we're dealing only with savings and CDs now.

[oddstray]

I'm not wonderfully happy with what my 401K has earned, but that's the fault of this economic morass we're in.

Our financial advisor suggested with keep up with the 401K, for certain up to the level that my company matches, and even more than that. But then, I'm trying to catch up from a 12-year lag before I started seriously earning/saving. The closer I get to actually being able to retire, the happier I am that I have the 401K in addition to other means of support.

[jrkliny]

There is a typical pattern. Investors become nervous as the market declines and they tend to sell. If the market gets worse and worse, selling continues. When the market is doing well, then many investors feel confident and buy. The net result of this behavior is selling at a low price and buying at a high price. I have been forcing myself to do the opposite. I guess you would call it rebalancing. It goes against human nature but it works. If you do it right, the volatile up and down markets can make you more money than just sitting tight with a diversified portfolio.

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by oddstray

I'm not wonderfully happy with what my 401K has earned, but that's the fault of this economic morass we're in.

Our financial advisor suggested with keep up with the 401K, for certain up to the level that my company matches, and even more than that. But then, I'm trying to catch up from a 12-year lag before I started seriously earning/saving. The closer I get to actually being able to retire, the happier I am that I have the 401K in addition to other means of support.

For a very short time the state from which I retired matched up to $100 a month for manager's 401Ks; this in addition to our retirement funds. Then, as they'd done before regarding management perks, the labor unions pitched a fit because rank-and-file didn't get the same benefit and as was/is its wont, the state knuckled to labor and we lost the match. Those types of things made a lot of us wonder why we went into management in the first place.

[lcole07]

Our company stated the 401k's in 1978, they matched the first 7% and you could put in 15%. I retired in 1993 and have been very happy ever since! I was one who moved my funds around from the stable to the S&P back and forth, best thing I did for savings..

[goldengrain]

I invested the max in the 401k and self managed between int'l, domestic stocks and bond funds. I also invested additional monies in the market. I retired about ten years ago when I dumped money into longer term cds and muni bonds, triple A insured.

I also dumped my two family house when the market was high. I am a very lucky person, having no crystal ball. Regarding financial advisors, I could never see paying someone to lose money for me, as I could do that myself. I made out much better than most of my co workers. Having no kids also helped a lot as did living frugally.

[Cali BassMan]

Been in the company 401k plan for 30 years. Always put in enough to receive the 6% company match. Have held fast through the ups and downs. Lost alot in the crash of 08, but it's back now. I'm still all in, as I now make catch-up contributions because I'm over 50. Still on track for a retirement in 1396 days...