Any retirees here? What are you doing with your nest egg?

[Peregrine Took]

I heard someone say that index funds are good right now and he recommended Vanguard.

We've already lost 30 -40% and we didn't have that much to begin with.

I wish I'd listened to Thom Hartmann a year ago when he advised everyone to get out of the market.

[brer cat]

1. I'm watching mine fade away

Just grateful for social security.

[1620rock]

3. Like the Paul Simon lyrics..."slip-sliden away."

[MercutioATC]

2. "Index funds" are just funds that track an index.

If that index was, say, the EAFE, it lost about 50% in the last 12 months.

For retirees, staying completely out of equities is probably a good idea right now.

[Lasher]

8. I moved a few months ago into 100% money market.

But I didn't get completely out of stocks until after I got hurt pretty good. My retirement savings won't last this way unless I get lucky and die young, so I'll eventually get back into equities but not before 1Q next year and maybe not then either.

[MercutioATC]

9. I've been 100% in treasuries since January 2007...

I've only got 7 years to retirement, so I'm more risk-averse than I used to be. I'm staying out of equities for now...

[old mark]

4. I got out of the market fund nearly 2 years ago, and everything we have is in

money markets, etc. Pretty stable if nothing else.
Funny thing is, I did not plan to retire at that time, I wanted to be working till at least 2010.
Instead my health went bad again,and some other things happened and I retired at 59.

mark

[Warpy]

5. I decided to ride it out

and with my cash reserve, I should do OK.

I think the people who won't do OK are the ones who rushed into T-bills. They're going to get killed if there's a deflationary cycle because there is no way they're going to compete with foreign governments or even retiring baby boomers and get full face value on those things when they rush out of them and into something else.

Of course, I could be wrong and spend the rest of my own days dumpster diving. The problem with a crash like this one is that nobody knows what the right thing to do is until it's all over and we count up who has what.

[jkshaw]

6. We've also lost 30% of our fund

before we moved what was left into an IRA. It's now in bonds which offer a small return, but the fund as a whole is more or less safe against disappearing altogether. We're now retired completely as of last June, after leaving halftime university employment AND, unfortunately, the steady contributions of the university to our pension funds. We're both in our late seventies, wondering if we're going to outlive our pension funds. But more importantly, we'd hope to leave something to our unmarried librarian daughter to help run this farm to which she's contributed so much, making it what it is today. We're more worried about her than we are ourselves.

[benddem]

7. first I put it in CD's

then when they came due...I went to state bonds. Lousy interest but safe.

[damntexdem]

10. Be careful of the terminology -- I'm a full-time professor, and I've retired three times over.

Thank goodness, two of those 'retirements' were from defined-benefit pension plans. And since I had a choice when I took my current job (leaving the former one was the occasion of the three retirements), I chose the defined-benefit option over the defined-contribution plan.

As to my nest egg, the defined-contribution plan where I had no choice of a pension plan, I have left the money in TIAA-CREF. Assuming the recovery comes on a reasonable schedule, the value should recover before I would need to tap those funds. I suspect that holding on and hoping is the best approach now -- as opposed to what one might have done a year ago.

[sinkingfeeling]

13. You got me beat. I'm once retired on a defined-benefit pension (IBM for 30 yrs.) and now

have TIAA-CREF.

[livetohike]

11. Riding it out and looking for work

We are 56 and 54 years old. Time to go back to work for a while, if we can. Everything we have is staying where it is. Now is not the time to cash out.

[Peregrine Took]

14. Me, too. I'm a "2nd career" librarian and 'was lucky enough to get

my one and only librarian job (part time) but the new director let all of us "grey hairs" go and hired a younger, more diverse group.

That was a few years ago - now I'm in my mid 60's and there are just no jobs available for me. As soon as they see the word "librarian" on my resume they imagine an old lady with specs on the end of her nose, a bun and sensible shoes.

Not to brag but I can run a 10 minute mile and 'am in better health now than I was when I was younger and 'ignored exercise.

Maybe I should put a photo on my resume, but then I've heard that its considered tacky to do so.

I've been checking every day for months and have found a few to apply for but no response.

[livetohike]

15. Hang in there

Have you considered archival work? We just started our search this week - the largest city (Pittsburgh) is 100 miles away. This is a great place to just be retired, but we never thought this would happen to our investments. I guess no one did.

Years ago when I was a teacher and applying in the south, it was required to attach a photograph to the application! Once you get an interview, the interviewers will sense how energetic you are. I went back and got my MBA in 1999 when I was 47 years old and I was also working full time. I could run circles around some who are half my age.

[Serial Mom]

16. self delete

[Turbineguy]

12. I legged out

of the Market in May, June and October.

In July I bought ELN which came under a coordinated short attack and lost nearly 60K in 3 days needlessly.

My nest egg is in cash earning several glorious percent and I've gone back to work.

I retired at 52 and enjoyed it for 5 years.

The Market is now controlled by predator traders who look to make a profit on their trades regardless. Companies will be destroyed and people will lose their pensions. There have been a dozen "sucker rallies" getting people to jump back in only to have the market go lower. Until the trading rules are changed, this will continue.

[Moondog]

17. Treasuries and

money markets since mid-07.

[javelin]

18. I have all my money in a bank money market.

A C.D., U.S. savings bonds, and hard cash. I don't own or buy stocks, the market is sure to collapse.

[AnnInLa]

19. Paid off house

Got mostly out of the market when the rumblings began, but lost about a third of what I retained there. At first I put my money taken out of the market into CDs and high-interest savings accounts, but those rates went south. Sure didn't want to lock in long-term CD rates, but now it looks like maybe I should have. Anyway, there was no place to put my money, so I decided the hell with it...paid off my house. My retirement income is small, but there is a check every month that I receive from an annuity, so I save most of it at Smarty Pig. www.smartypig.com

I retired at a relatively young age, but I do not want to go back to work!! I love being retired....the freedom of choice about what to do (or not do) every day is just wonderful, I can't get over it, after working for all those years.

Looks like our "golden years" are getting kinda pale yellow.