I peeked

[rooskers]

The numbers can be depressing. Personal Rate of Return from 01/01/2008 to 11/21/2008 is -46.2%. This is only my rate of return for all my stocks and mutual funds. If I had taken into account all my investments for retirement my PRR is closer to -25%.

On a positive note here is what I use to buy on a biweekly basis for one of my funds.

1.574 shares

and now

8.672 shares.

Dollar cost averaging is why I am not worrying. Eventually the market will go back up and those additional shares at a much lower price will help. If the market never does go back up but falls endlessly then the least of our worries will be our retirement.

[Snave]

Please don't all of you jump off a bridge or I might just follow you! I went and looked after all of you have and after looking at 2 accounts it was well over 100k in losses. I didn't even open the other 4 accounts up. But hey, at least I have the equity still in my home. Oh crap, that is another 100K gone!

[maat55]

Please don't all of you jump off a bridge or I might just follow you! I went and looked after all of you have and after looking at 2 accounts it was well over 100k in losses. I didn't even open the other 4 accounts up. But hey, at least I have the equity still in my home. Oh crap, that is another 100K gone!

It's funny you say that. One of my clients told me, two months ago, she had lost over 400k. I haven't heard from her in a while.

[snafu]

I look each Fri. and tell myself it's only a loss on paper hoping I won't need to convert to cash. I continue buying index following my plan.

[jill8beans2]

No peeky

We, collectively, have decided, after finding out how much money we had already lost, that we are not going to look again until after Obama is sworn in. If we focus on the losses and negativity, we will certainly be screwed.

[KGeary]

We, collectively, have decided, after finding out how much money we had already lost, that we are not going to look again until after Obama is sworn in. If we focus on the losses and negativity, we will certainly be screwed.

So, is Obama going to save you or something?

[LivingAlmostLarge]

We're at $54k for all retirement savings for the year. We started off with $68k this year. And we added $10k to our Roth IRAs, $13.9k thus far for 401k, and $5700 401k company match. So we added $29.6k this year alone.

My goal was to break $100k this year. We should have had $97.6k and I just needed a small return. Well instead we're at $54k, so we lost $43.6k or about 44% this year alone.

This doesn't count the $10k in taxable account we lost about 50% as well.

[Ima saver]

Everything that I have saved this year has gone into a bank account. at least I am earning some interest.

[jIM_Ohio]

my yahoo preview shows most accounts down around 35%. At one point they were down 40%.

We lost about 80k this year. If market stays down 3 years we will double the number of shares we own.

[feh]

Our portfolio is down something around 40% from the high water mark - 6 digits of losses (I'd rather not give an exact amount).

The first 20% seemed to hurt the worst...after that it was just so bad, all you could do was shake your head and accept it. We haven't sold anything, and we continue to contribute to retirement accounts.

I'm hoping in a few years it will all just be a bad memory. We've got at least 15 years until retirement, so assuming a full recovery, it won't be the end of the world.

I feel bad for folks that were within 2-5 years of retirement and had aggressive portfolios. That would be a nightmare...

[jIM_Ohio]

Our portfolio is down something around 40% from the high water mark - 6 digits of losses (I'd rather not give an exact amount).

The first 20% seemed to hurt the worst...after that it was just so bad, all you could do was shake your head and accept it. We haven't sold anything, and we continue to contribute to retirement accounts.

I'm hoping in a few years it will all just be a bad memory. We've got at least 15 years until retirement, so assuming a full recovery, it won't be the end of the world.

I feel bad for folks that were within 2-5 years of retirement and had aggressive portfolios. That would be a nightmare...

I would actually guess that your 15 year horizon might get reduced to 10 years if the rebound up is as aggressive as the ride down. Keep buying (as you indicated you are).

If a person was aggressive 2-5 years from retirement- shame on them for not understanding the risks they took.

There is a reason I measure retirement based on 25X expenses:
1X-3X expenses saved- more than likely this is starting out and creating the right allocation.
6X expenses- you have the allocation and are two doubles away
6X-12X expenses- this is when to be aggressive and get the growth needed. If a person has more than 12X expenses and is aggressive (trying to reach a given date- this is a BAD risk, IMO)
12X expenses- this is when slow and steady wins the race. You have 7-10 years from this point to retire. The goal would be to reach the 7 year side as opposed to the 10 year side. Let the interest from bonds get you most of the return needed and be 60-40 using a down market to rebalance into stocks, not using an 80-20 or 100% equity portfolio to reach the goal sooner. Being aggressive at 12X expenses point is like having a paper airplane contest in a wind storm. Might work, but the wind storm has more control than the quality of the airplane.
12X expenses-25X expense- be in the "stable" investing profile. 60-40 type mix, and only buy more equities if a rebalance opportunity is created by a market like 2008. Otherwise use the 7-10 years to get from 12X to 25X to make sure you have the right money in the right places (1-3 years expenses in cash, the right kinds of bonds, the right kinds of equities).
At 25X expenses most people will be able to retire (many people actually retire before they reach 25X expenses anyway because of pensions, SS or other). 25X is not the time to get conservative- that move should have came around 5-10 years earlier.

If you retire with a 3% withdraw rate, just back the whole thing up using 33X expenses and final number, 16X, 8X, 4X and 2X as the other amounts.

When you are "one double" from retirement you should be planning for a stable value portfolio and not be aggressively invested in market.

I have an aunt retiring at around age 62 in January. The market is not preventing retirement because she planned for this a long time ago.

[disneysteve]

If a person was aggressive 2-5 years from retirement- shame on them for not understanding the risks they took.

I just had this conversation with someone. My cousin works for a bank. One of his superiors is retiring in February and is going nuts because of the huge drop in his portfolio. He is still retiring as scheduled but has lost a ton of money. When I asked why the guy was so heavily into stocks, the answer was that he was invested in what were felt to be safe stocks that paid good dividends and he was counting on those dividends for part of his income. Unfortunately, even "safe" stocks have been hammered in this market and dividends have been slashed or eliminated entireley.

So I suspect a lot of soon-to-be retirees and already retired folks are in the same boat. They have been depending on dividend income from stocks that now isn't there anymore.

[feh]

I would actually guess that your 15 year horizon might get reduced to 10 years if the rebound up is as aggressive as the ride down.

I hope it is, but my gut says it won't be. I hate to be pessimistic, but I think it's gonna be a few years before the Dow or S&P 500 see new records.

[Cylenchar]

I peeked. I've lost lots, however, one bright spot. I have stock in a homebuilder(employer) and it is up almost 8% YTD. I went with a pretty aggressive investment portfolio and have at least 20 years before I retire. so I am definitly counting right now as a good time to invest on the cheap. I worry about people who are closer to retiring though....

[jIM_Ohio]

I hope it is, but my gut says it won't be. I hate to be pessimistic, but I think it's gonna be a few years before the Dow or S&P 500 see new records.

The longer the market stays down, the more likely I could retire earlier than planned (plan is 2026).

• Each purchase lowers my "break even" point
• Every 3 years at this level I double the shares in my portfolio (of each holding). Not including dividends.
• One steep year upward (25-50% returns) might be enough to retire on if the market waits for me to accumulate enough shares

I do not expect the 3rd bullet to be true- but if it does happen that would probably trigger a 2022 retirement (4 years sooner) as best case. It certainly will not prolong me working past 2026.

Every purchase you make NOW lowers the "high" you need the market to hit to "break even".