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probably hiding in the closet with consumer confidence.
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There is never a shortage of TV market cheerleaders regardless of anything at all....
1. Don't move anything in your 401k.
2. Even if your employer matches, increase your own contribution.
3. If your employer doesn't match, increase your own contribution.
They haven't robbed people enough, I guess. And anyone who becomes unemployed will probably, at some point, have to dig into their 401k to pay all their bills and save their house, if that's possible.
Gary Flam's middle name isn't Flim?
then you have to pay taxes on the full amount you withdrew (PLUS the 20% they took off the top).
if you invest more when its low, it'll pay off more when it finally does go back up.
the problem is, with the employment situation (as you mentioned), people losing their jobs HAVE to grab that money to live on.
one of the things that I'd heard some of the Dems mention for stimulus was no penalties for early withdrawl from your 401K.
haven't seen any legislation on that though.
help the little guy out... but only a little.
this was the last one I cashed out of, in California... %20 off the top.
the one I cashed in when I left NY didn't have that much in it, but it was still around %15... luckily, I didn't wind up filing in NY... and somehow they never tracked me down for state income taxes (probably was making too little then, can't remember.)
in California, I cashed one in for 14K... got a check for 11,200.
had to pay income tax on the whole 14k though.
sucked heavily.
Margin call, gentlemen.
Wall St.: "Hey, all the stocks we hold are plummeting in value. Lay people, please start buying them all up en masse to drive up stock prices. Once they go up a bit, we'll sell our holdings at the artificially bumped up price. Of course, our sell off will drive down the value of your portfolio, but John Q. Public doesn't mind taking another hit for our boys on Wall St., right?"
But ideally, it is really about having a diverse portfolio that is appropriate to your age, financial goals and tolerance for risk. My mother is retired, and I have 40% of her money in US Treasuries, 28% stock, 20% money market and 12% in corporate bonds. Yes, she has taken a hit but certainly not as bad as others. She counts herself among the lucky that she is not worried because her portfolio is balanced and conservative. It also helps that she lives really frugally. As an older person, she has seen a lot of market swings. She said this is the worst she has seen but realizes the markets will eventually come back. She also realizes that while in the middle of a market meltdown, it is hard to imagine when we will get out of it. As Suze Orman recently said, we are going to become a pay as you go society. Thank you for listening.
Take a gander Alexander:
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b0a_1232747931
Reality is nobody knows what the hell to do. Everyday is a crapshoot.
They assumed the value of the loan's collateral - the home - would cover the loan should the borrower with no job, no income and no assets failed to pay the loan; not realizing that their irresponsibie behavior artificially increased demand, which had the effect of increasing the price of property.
And then? All the persons who couldn't pay back the loan did just that - they didn't pay and homes started coming on the market in record numbers. Supply for homes increased, demand decreased, and now the collateral isn't worth th eamount of the loans. And who pays? Me and people like me, who lived within my means. Fuck.
And now the bankers blame the credit bureaus? Those poor bankers.
CNBC's 'report' is actually just the outrageously wealthy begging the middle class to 'buy' more stocks so the wealthy can steal it.
Commenter, 'Older and Wiser' has some 401k advice, which is also a request from the incredibly wealthy asking the middle class to leave whatever money they have left in their 401k plans so the wealthy can steal it all.
The stock market is a high-class mugging. Smart people will stay away from that scam and keep their own money for themselves.
If you already are in the stock market, it's a lot simpler if you just make a check out in the amount of everything you own to someone that doesn't deserve it, like Bernie Made-off.
Remember, the house always wins!