Not as Bad as I Thought

[bjarvis]

Since the Economic Apocalypse fell upon us, I've been pretty good about not looking at my 401(k): watching the Dow Jones plunge and skyrocket every few minutes was more than enough excitement for me. This morning, however, in a moment of weakness, I looked at my accounts.

My 401(k) is down 21.8% from its peak. That's vastly better than I was expecting. It sucks, but I was braced for 40% off and I'm not retiring for another 30 years anyway.

Whew.

Comments

[rwgill.livejournal.com]

I've made a point of not looking at my financial accounts over the last 6 weeks or so. I know it would just look horrible and make me unduly anxious. While I need some of the money next October I don't forsee that being an issue and with a 20+ year timeline before retirement the ups and downs of the market just aren't worth the stress.

I've always held the idea that you haven't lost anything until you sell. It's not always true of course however in most cases there is a better tomorrow ahead.

Then again I could be totally naive and be looking at it all wrong.

[trawnapanda.livejournal.com]

I'm not retiring for another 30 years anyway.

you're not retiring until you're over SEVENTY??

yipes! I thought you had two husbands to keep you in the style to which, &c, & shirley that doesn't include working past Canada Pension retirement age of 65

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

Um, the two husbands are expecting me to keep them in the style to which they'd like to become accustomed. While I can nip into CPP at 65, full social security in the US doesn't kick in until 67. And I'm giving allowances that both may change upwards before I approach the appropriate ages.

[bradferd23.livejournal.com]

You have choosen wisely Luke... the force is with you... I am down about 40%... DOH. ;) Tis all good... Nick will be my welfare sugardaddy!!! muhahahaha...

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

Alas, I am the sugardaddy for a surprising number of people... *sigh*

[jss]

I'm down (in terms of net worth including retirement accounts) about 18% since August 24th, and down about 31% total since the height of the dot-com craziness. Luckily, those are all paper losses (as rwgill notes, it's not a loss until the time of sale), and I've got a long horizon (probably another 30 years here, too).