siq burn!!! lol.
I do plan on retiring soon. 
Jealous?
My 401K guy has always bragged about dumping all of his money into his 401k so he could retire young. Now when he comes in he is just a miserable prick. lol
18.8% YTD
Nah, I’m going to strike it rich in options enough to have a starting point to quit my job and just invest for a living.
They say that considering it a legitimate way to make money is a sign of a gambling addiction…
Anyhow, yeah my ytd sucks. I dumped it all into something safe when the shit hit the fan last year then forgot that I had a 401k. Oops! Time to get out of the fetal position…
so you sold low and now you’re going to buy high?
That’s how I roll. 
Mine really didn’t dive that bad last year, on the flip side it is not going up all that much this year… around 12% I think.
26.8%
I got lucky as I was in the middle of dealing with a finance guru just before the shit hit the fan. I moved all of my money into cash, and he was supposed to distribute it for me. He didn’t do anything, so when the market bombed I was sitting on a cruise ship LOL’ing because my $$ was safe. I then turned around and threw 90% of it at the most risky package that they offer and have had huge returns on it. The other 10% is in a moderate stock package.
My father was quite unfortunate as he lost 200K and my uncle lost over 500K when the market dropped. Hopefully at this point they have recovered some of it, but holy shit would it suck to lose .5M in a fucking day.
So, how is everybody doing compared to 2 years ago?
I’m still down 11%. :meh:
I’m down 5% from exactly two years ago.*
*this balance then vs. balance now, so it includes contributions. the upside being I own a lot more shares than I did two years ago, so if the value gets back to the same point I’ll be way better off than two years ago.
I forget and can’t look it up because I scaled out into this rally and rolled from 401k to self directed IRA. It was somewhere around 20% YTD. Most everyone should be in that range given the rally since early this year.
Worst part is I exited October just before the drop and moved 100% to stable value funds. Great right…yeah well the double bottom faked me out late December and I went back in…and then kaboooom. LOL.
LOL!
Those on sidelines should wait for a correction OR see if resistance breaks and proves as new support. Otherwise money may be getting thrown out the windows. Don’t watch the news, feel left out and buy here at the peak of resistance. It’s WAY high. Buy if it goes higher, or lower…but IMO not here. 
YTD I’m up 13.98%
Even at the market low point, I was only at a 2 % lose and that was only for 2 weeks :tup:
Wow… just logged in for the first time since I set it up, and was glad to see 13% although I hadn’t changed anything from over a year ago… lol.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but contributions being added from each paycheck are looked at as part of the YTD change. If so, don’t be played by the numbers game. That’s what they do at car dealers too. “How much can you afford each month?” No no no, don’t allow figures to cloud the facts. How much am I getting the car for, then how long and at what interest rate is the loan for? I know I can afford much more “per month” if we stretch the loan out a few extra years, I want to know what I’m paying for the car!
Same thing with the 401k, people have added all the way down which impacts the bottom line. If you lost $8k but put in $4k via paychecks of course the account won’t look as battered. The way 401k are marketed anger me. They act like you just put 5-10% of your check in forever with little to NO thought and you’ll be a millionaire automatically.
Take the amount you had in the 401k back in October 2007. Subtract your contributions from that time to current. That will show you the actual net gain or loss. Don’t get me wrong…when the market drops you can lower your cost basis on holdings. But I still like to know what my prior holdings did, not including current additions.
This sparked me…I’m doing an article on 401k timing for “dummies” for TradersBASE.com. I think people could at quick glance on a monthly chart know whether it’s time to put in, or NOT put in. Or perhaps always put in 2-3% and then have periods where you put in 10% when the market has heavily corrected. ETC…
You don’t need to be a daytrader or TA guru to just tweak your contribution timing. It would make a HUGE difference. Just need a basic understanding of “overbought” and “oversold” as well as divergence (momentum not backing the prices actions). Improve your cost basis and your gains will be exponentially better. Of course this takes effort to some extent and peoples draw to the 401k in general is becoming a mindless millionaire so… 
^ Good points however I am clearly able to view my performance in terms of value or actual income/loss due to valudation of the funds without adding in the contributions to inflate the number. Poke around, it may not be the default view but its there.
up 3%
I didn’t see it on my platform at all. I was through Fidelity…they suck. Funds are garbage that they offer etc… Who do you use?
I’m so glad to be in a self directed IRA thorough Think or Swim now. 
www.tradersbase.com has a new blog up. I’m sure this will ruffle some feathers. Hopefully it will light some fires as well. Enjoy.
Anyone that began contributing in the Y2k bear, especially late are doing ok here. Those that stepped in late to the game have an injured cost basis. It’s amazing how time of entry can effect the bigger picture aka your ability to retire comfortably. That’s why I write, to try to shed light on some of the inner workings and fine print written in invisible ink. No 401k pamphlet will talk about any real negative aspects of course. It’s all “put your % in and retire a millionaire”. Shouldn’t we all seek to better our situations? There are times the market is clearly overpriced mid term and buying there is cost prohibitive. Why contribute the same % when the market is overpriced and a correction is due? Why not at minimum add a higher % when the market is beat up? Always JMHO of course.