My wife was scheduled to roll over her 401k for her teacher retirement this month. Guess what?

[gordianot]

She has lost $7000.00 in last two days. Five days until the transaction is completed.

:mad:

[DonRedwood]

1. Whose pocket does that lost money end up in? It doesn't just disappear

[glinda]

2. If some media with balls would take a look at that I suspect some would be charged. The

"money" does go somewhere. Same as our "downpayment" on our house went somewhere.

[RobinA]

3. Oh Come On!

The money never exists until you cash out. It's paper only.

[Lint Head]

7. Koch brothers.

They speculate on a down market. They are economic leeches.

[tkmorris]

9. Actually, most often it does just disappear

I don't know what her 401k was invested in, but when things like stocks drop in price the value does in fact just disappear.

[Atypical Liberal]

11. No, it really does just disappear.

If you have something that people are willing to buy from you for a dollar today, but tomorrow they only want to pay $.50 because they don't think it is worth as much, then you just lost half the value of your thing, should you decide to sell it.

[tammywammy]

4. If she's rolling it into another 401k

She'll still be able to realize gains when the market goes back up. This close to retirement none of your investments should really even be in stocks.

[gordianot]

13. She will not see a gain and is taking early retirement in that retirement system.

The luck of the draw having an August birthday. I wanted her to do the roll over last month before a blowback on the debt debacle. I am trying to remain calm she was crying when she called me. I am hoping for a possible rebound but honestly do not have much hope. No I told you so accusations from me but I need to stay out of locked rooms with tea party members and Republicans given my current mood.

[FarCenter]

5. S&P 500 shows up 4.75% at the close.

That should help recover a couple thousand. Good luck.

[tk2kewl]

6. I let my BIL talk me into keeping my 401K in an agressive 25 year plan

I had wanted to move it into a stable income fund. normally for people closer to retirement. I should have gone with my own assessment. I haven't even checked how much it has dropped. the 401K had just gotten back to even money. :(

[susanr516]

8. My husband is thinking about retiring in Mar 2012

I'm afraid to look at his 401K.

It seems like every time we get back to where we were before the last crash, the bottom drops out again.

I'm 57, and I've never felt so financially insecure in my life. Never.

[JDPriestly]

22. See whether you can roll it over into a fund managed by the same

company that has been managing it.

[truebrit71]

10. Unless she had to sell her positions in order to move them she hasn't lost anything..

..except book value...market up big today 5%...should soften the blow somewhat, no?

[scheming daemons]

12. she made a lot of it back today

[gordianot]

14. I hope, for me "hope" is a dirty word in recent weeks.

[SoCalNative]

15. There really needs to be

something that you can put your money into once you've become fully vested in a plan (usually after 5 years) that isn't subject to the volatility of the market and doesn't ding you with penalties for doing so.

[NeedleCast]

16. There are

I've never seen a 401k plan that didn't have options for bonds and other safer waters. Having a 401k does NOT mean you have to have your money in the stock market.

[tammywammy]

17. Exactly n/t

[high density]

28. This

Your asset allocation sounds like it is wrong.

[Common Sense Party]

18. There is. Every retirement plan has a money market or stable value option.

They are required by ERISA/DOL law to have this.

[SoCalDem]

19. We moved what was left of ours into the "safe" plan 3 years ago

We "lost" $29,500 in the last debacle:grr:.. I sure hope safe means safe because my husband really wants to stop working in a few years..

[rdking647]

20. and she should of made a good chunk back today

[deaniac21]

21. She ain't selling so she ain't lost nothin

[JoePhilly]

23. That's what she is down in the last 2 days ... what was her position

One year ago?

Two years ago?

Three years ago?

Also ... does she need to remove money NOW, or is she doing a simple roll-over? If its a simple roll-over, she's UP from each of the last 3 years. And if she's been adding to that 401k for the last 10 years, she's also way up.

If, however, she needs to withdraw money now, then she should have started to shift money OUT of stocks as the DOW passed 11k, 115k, 12k, and 12.5k in the last year. she should have been locking in those gains as her time horizon became shorter and shorter.

In fact, if she needs to withdraw now (not just roll-over) she should have started to lock in gains at least 5 years ago at the same levels I just mentioned.

If you are less than 5 years from needing to withdraw the money, you better have shifted it to safe investments.

Also ... the 7k loss number is meaningless. What % is she down, for the last week, the last year, last 2 years, last 3 years?

If you don't know that, you are likely to make bad decisions regardless.

[gordianot]

27. In that system she was a teacher currently is an administrator in another system.

After working out the numbers it paid for her to draw as soon as possible. She is in a position to purchase 3 years from the retirement system and is using her 401k. She took a big hit in 2009 and now has taken another hit since her last July 2011 statement. Believe me the $7000 is not meaningless.

I took my 401k out in 2008 before the crash in that I was able to purchase 5 years from Government service. A couple other teachers wh invested in the same 401k lost 20%. Our lesson was learned never to be repeated.

[benld74]

24. Back in 2008, my oldest college fund lost over 50K, I put the remainder in checking

[gordianot]

29. That would have happened to me when I retired I got out in the nick of time.

[WinkyDink]

25. Interesting. In PA, public-school teachers don't have 401K's.

[gordianot]

26. in MO you can opt to buy 1/2 a year on retirement.

That is why many use a 401k.