All that money you've lost -- Where did it go?

[Ed62]

Now we should all feel better.........
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081011/...re_s_the_money

[crokett]

It sounds crazy but I actually reallocated my 401k and the investment direction of my contributions into stocks. I am not going to retire any time soon and the stock funds I am in are all long-term blue chips that should recover. In the meantime I am buying more shares with the same amount of $$$.

I do not have enough nerve to sell short though.

[cwithboat]

Same place it went during the dot com bubble. I had almost made it back from that. BTW I did not lose my money during the dot com thing by having internet stocks, I lost in "blue chips". You know, the ones with single and two letter stock symbols.

[BobSch]

IIn the meantime I am buying more shares with the same amount of $$$.

Dollar-Cost-Averaging is something investment analysts have been pshing for a long time and the current market is a perfect example of the concept.

Just hang on, things will come back. However, I feel sorry for those who just, or are close to retirement. They're the ones who are really going to feel this downturn.

[ragswl4]

Haven't lost any. All my 401K has been in Gov't Treasury Bills since retiring in 2005. Not pretty, but 5% every year which is about what I withdraw. Not smart, just conservation of capital when on a fixed income. Were I 40-50 years old, I'd be jumping at the bargains that are out there now. In 10 years one would probably be way ahead.

[crokett]

Just hang on, things will come back. However, I feel sorry for those who just, or are close to retirement. They're the ones who are really going to feel this downturn.

My father is down about 20% he says. My in-laws are down about the same. Both of them reallocated a few months ago for other reasons, otherwise they say it would have been much worse. I went from +14% on the year to -8% return in about 6 days, but that was partly by design. I pushed most of what I had into my large company fund and redirected new contributions there. Like I said, it will come back and meantime the same $$$ buys more shares.

[Bruce Cohen]

I'm down about 40%, and well. I guess I'll never get to retire.

Bruce

[conwaygolfer]

Money Lost?

The money is not lost as long as you hold on and don't sell. Sort of like a sponge, gets smaller if squeezed, but will fill up again when the water hits it.

This is what the stock broker told me before he lost most of MY money.

Conwaygolfer

[cgallery]

Last May my mother had me open an account at a new broker because she wanted to transfer some funds from my father's estate, and insisted it would be easier for her if I just opened an account at the broker he and she used.

I decided I'd liquidate everything at my old broker and move it all over to her broker. Once the funds were moved over, I honestly thought the market was already at a high and I decided to just wait and see (leaving the money in a money market).

The stock market went on to hit two more highs (about 13.5 and then 14k). My wife thought I was nuts for not putting it back into the market.

Not more than a six weeks ago a friend/customer was in the shop and we were talking about the market and I told him I was waiting for a large drop and then I'd go all-in. He admonished me for not dollar cost averaging back into the market, said I was foolish.

I would go back in now, but I'm worried about this CDS issue. Lehman's bond value was set at eight cents on the dollar. The insurers will have to make up the rest, and nobody knows how many billions of dollars will be required and how many insurers will have their capital reserves wiped-out (thus causing a downgrade on their debt).

I have a feeling this is why the G7 are struggling to come up with a cohesive plan. It is quite possible that the payments triggered by Lehman's demise could cause a chain reaction that would have severe ramifications in the credit and stock markets.

So I got 1/2 of it right. But now I'm trying to catch a falling knife, and I'm still pretty bearish on the market.

[gsmittle]

Now we should all feel better.........
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081011/...re_s_the_money

And here I thought it went where all the single socks go in the dryer...

g.

[ironhat]

I'm down about 40%, and well. I guess I'll never get to retire.

Bruce

With my increasing level of disability I had hoped to go early in five. I guess I'm in for another 10, if I have it me, that is.

[scmhogg]

It's a lot like the "Magic Smoke", you can smell the stink, but you can't grasp it in your hands.

Steve

[LCHIEN]

just for comparison, Enron managed to go from $65 Billion in market capitalization to about zero. We have a lot of new "winners".

[Schleeper]

The "lost money" from the drop in stock prices ended up in the same place as the "lost money" from the drop in home values this past year. How many of you sold your home because its market value dropped?

When you're sitting at a poker or blackjack table with a stack of chips in front of you, how much "money" do you have? Answer: none (unless you have some in your wallet.) You can only figure out how much you've won or lost when you stop playing (or as Kenny Rogers puts it, "...when the dealin's done",) and cash out.

[I used to make my living advising people on, among other things, how to invest their money. Now I just play blackjack. ]

[RAFlorida]

LOML retired in July this year. With the 401(k) at her worksite,

she had lost about 1.5% in the preceding months (12) and she said she was taking the money out and not rolling it over, but placed it in our savings with a small interest in that account. Glad she did; others at her old work place have been taking drops in their retirement funds.