DISQUS

jerrywcca · 1 year ago

Dammit John, you're going to force me to open that envelope...
-12.99% for the quarter, -23.15% for the year. I use to think I'd be working til I'm 70, make that 80.

voxbear · 1 year ago

Here's what my friends at Fidelity have to see tonight:
Your Personal Rate of Return from 01/01/2008 to 10/14/2008 is -31.3%
Thank God I have 30 more years to try to earn it back.

FunMe · 1 year ago

I don't want to see mine, thank you very much.

shrrrr · 1 year ago

The real bad news is not the last quarter, but the last 4 quarters.

Twelve months ago the dow was 14,000. Just a couple days ago we briefly saw 8,000 and currently floating at 9,300.

16% of what?

wbw63 · 1 year ago

My folks figure they've lost a third of their worth.

ksub2000 · 1 year ago

16% - you're lucky. Try 38%.

sddesq · 1 year ago

22.5% for me. All the money I put into the account in the past year is gone. As my partner says, "All this means is that we'll have to work until we die."

StellasKid · 1 year ago

Just got my statement tonight - 13% over the last quarter and 26% over the past year for me! Luckily I'm still young(-ish) and unmarried so I can ride out this downturn without any serious consequences.

BeccaMorn · 1 year ago

Only 16%? At the worst, we were about 40% down. That's eased up some, about 5% has recovered, but our investments are still off by 1/3.

brian · 1 year ago

I lost 28.8%

ThingsComeUndone · 1 year ago

Have you looked at your investments today?

pointyhatpalin · 1 year ago

Mine is down less than 1% but I moved my money to guaranteed funding 5 months ago while everyone at work pointed and laughed at me. My co-workers have lost at least 33%. They've stopped pointing and laughing at me.

Apphouse50 · 1 year ago

Pretty much the same for me. I have 75% of my big 401K in a fixed fund. But the equities based portion got hammered, naturally. Thankfully, am down only 2.35% for the year, 1.80% for the quarter.

Have a separate 401K with my new employer, very little in it, all equities. Screwed.

Indigo · 1 year ago

About 40% on the total value of all my holdings. Of course, it's a statistical loss on paper that continues to grow/diminish as long as I keep it invested. I didn't try to cash anything out so I didn't loose anything concrete. In fact, I recently invested a smidgen in the Three Bad Boys [GM, Ford, and AIG] at their 50 year lows and yesterday I "earned" $4.75. Tout va bien dans ce monde . . .

luvboxer · 1 year ago

I am 66 years old and had planned on retiring next year...well now now I just got my statement and I lost 30% of my 401K..guess I will keep on working a while if my health holds up.

I blame this mess on the republicans and Bush...anybody that votes republican is nuts...

Milli · 1 year ago

Same story with my co-worker. She's afraid to retire now.

Rab · 1 year ago

I'm diversified with a conservative (good) investment firm but got hammered about 15%. Repug policy the last 30 years is what this is.

HeartlandLiberal · 1 year ago

My wife and I are 62. My retirement is in TIAA-CREF, most of it it traditional conservative investments. Even so, overall I took a similar large hit.

As for those who could not see this train wreck coming, this story.

Two months ago my wife and I sat down and talked. We saw this train wreck coming. She had only been working part time for several years, but she had a TIAA-CREF account from her years of work as a professional editor full-time.

She officially "retired" by quitting her part-time job. She pulled the stocks portion out of her accumulation. We paid off the mortgage. In toto. I don't think I have ever cut a check or wired an amount quite that large before.

But there it is. At a time when too many Americans are facing foreclosure, we are extremely lucky. Our plan had been to pay it off in two years. But I do not have to touch my TIAA-CREF until I am 69, because I will be receiving deferred income for five years after I retire at 64.

My story is anomalous, I know, for most Americans. Don't get me wrong. We are not wealthy. My annual salary is in the mid-80's, but 10 years ago was around mid-50's. I just stuck it out with a university where I had gotten in on a hiring plan that gave a damn about retaining employees. They have actually discontinued it, but I was grandfathered. So I stuck it out.

The other aspect of this, instead of tapping equity to spend on unnecessary goods, vehicles, and stuff, we paid off the mortgage aggressively upfront. I suspect the banks never saw more than 1/2 the interest the original 30 year mortgage paid over term would have gotten them. We refinanced twice when interest rates were at historic lows to 15 years loans. And still I paid extra principle every month. It was obviously the best investment for my money. 15 years after purchasing the house, it is paid for. Lock, stock, and barrel. So any of you paying for your house, do the math on how much interest you pay, especially in the first half of the life of the loan. Heck, you can save even more if you make two payments spread over a month. It adds to the interest reduction.

I am actually later this month going to modify my TIAA-CREF account so that from here out all future contributions go into a mix of stocks. Why? Well, I am assuming they will recover by the time 6-7 years has passed. Now is probably the time to invest.

KarenMrsLloydRichards · 1 year ago

It's the "On Your Own" Society! Dick Cheney sleeps like a baby every night, his plundered wealth safe and sound (and he's not telling you how he did it).

tlsintx · 1 year ago

almost 30% down...back to work I go....

heckuva job bushco...may you reap what you've sown

triple7s · 1 year ago

I've been curious. Has anyone compiled a log of the COST to AMERICA of the BUSH ADMINISTRATION? For instance, DOLLAR amounts, numbers of DEAD, WOUNDED, DISPLACED. Then there would be the costs to the CONSTITUTION, CIVIL RIGHTS, PRIVACY, ETC. I don't know if it would be possible to get it ALL down in print, but I have a feeling that these people have done more PERMANENT DAMAGE to this COUNTRY than ANY OTHER ADMINISTRATION in our HISTORY.

Milli · 1 year ago

Lost about 10%.

iWoman · 1 year ago

Lost about 13 percent.

ghosthead · 1 year ago

I lost about 30%

123akennedy · 1 year ago

John, retirement? What retirement? Two months ago I wasn't too bad off, SS comming in, rent from an apartment in my house, and very nice dividend income from my stock investments. Today my stock is worth approximately 50% of its value. At the moment the dividends payments are still secure, however I don't know for how long. For me it is a massave loss that took a lifetime to build. But what can I say, I didn't get out when I should have, so I have to live with it. My broker kept telling me not to panic, so I didn't, now I'm down over, well lets just say a small, oh what the fuck, a large forturn, My fault. I should have seen this comming because I watch the markets like a hawk and I actually saw the signs, especially in oil. The only thing I bailed on was the financials, which I did early, but that is no help now. Oh well, what do they call it, 20/20 hind site right. If only, So I live with what I did or didn't do. It sure would have been nice to have had someone with a brain running the country for the past 8 years though, Maybe if there had been some regulation in the financials, there wouldn't have beenthis melt down that has cought not only me off guard, but millions of Americans, most of whom are not nearly as able to absorbe this crash. If McCain / Palin get anywhrere near the White House,, with what I have seen come out of his campaign, the average Joe will have NO chance at recovery because neither one of them have a clue whats going on and they gather people around them who know absolutely nothing about the economy. Its a shame, but the modern republican party really has become the home of hate and bigots. Lincoln would spit on this group and definately be a Democrat today.

Gary SF · 1 year ago

Well, fasten your seat belt, John. Your quarterly statement doesn't reflect October. I am guessing that you are down 30-40% by now.

Spunky_Jitters · 1 year ago

I saw the writing on the wall (street) and switched my 401k from a moderate journey to a conservative one 35 days ago. I still lost 14.5 %. It would have been more like 19% if I hadn't switched it, so i saved myself some dollars that way. Still, screw that crap. I would be better off just taking it all out now. Why shouldn't I?

tbhull · 1 year ago

It pays to have no retirement.

buckguy · 1 year ago

I lost 1/3 of one of the funds in my 401-k anda couple thousand in another. Fortunately, I had convereted everything else to government securities or money markets and I managed to change these over, too. The net effect is small, but only because I lost faith in the system last Winter and moved things around. Now if I could just sell my old condo.....

MNUSA · 1 year ago

My 401K hasn't done anything since Bush was elected. Now it's taken a serious hit. We used to have a retirement fund benefit. Then the corporation decided to cash us out, which meant everyone losing big time. A class-action suit was begun in the courts claiming these policies were devastating to older workers who couldn't work long enough to make up for the changes. Years later, the Bush Supreme Court ruled in favor of the corporations. What I wonder as I see the CEOs getting multimillion dollar golden parachutes after they failed and multimillion dollar salaries and fabulous perks worth millions more, is who will bail us out? 401K investors need to have the laws changed so that they can act to protect their investments. It'd be interesting to see a work-up of what changes should be made so that we have more input into corporate decisions that affect our future.

tas · 1 year ago

My daughter's college fund lost 35% this year. 25% in the last 3 weeks.

madtownT · 1 year ago

30%

henrythefifth · 1 year ago

Got you beat, lost 22.49 percent over the last year! Sweet! I thought 401ks were gonna save us all.

anastasjoy · 1 year ago

About 16% of my IRA as well, which fortunately is only about 1/5 of my retirement savings, the rest of which is locked up in stuff that can't go down. I bailed on the market last year.

freshpaint · 1 year ago

Quarter ending in September wasn't too bad -- off a little more than 10 percent -- had a lot of international stuff in the fund, which helped -- my bank person told me last year I should rotate in more international exposure. So far in October it is horrifying. I'd been relying on selling cap gains in one account (yes! I still had them from the Clinton years!) -- had unexpected expense -- taking down a diseased elm tree -- that has sent me scrounging. Plus, am an artist, and no one is buying art. Maybe the superrich like McCain still is so he can decorate his 10 mansions -- but he's not calling.

Saffi · 1 year ago

I lost 40% of the savings I was putting away for a home. (Yeah, I've been waiting until I could actually afford to buy a home - how weird of me.)

elvigy · 1 year ago

Down 23.94% year to date (Jan 1 to today). Hahaha. I might just pull it all out and treat myself to a nice dinner before it vanishes in a puff of smoke altogether.

bdhp · 1 year ago

I am up 1 1/2 percent. I pulled all my money out in May and put it in insured money markets. I told everyone who would listen that this was going to happen. I am still in money markets, this is not resolved yet. I kept saying there was no there, there. I had dinner with a friend a founder of Smith Barney , he kept saying the world was changing. I took that as saying the world markets were going to go KABOOM. I have not seen him for awhile because I can't handle his anti Obama nonsense. He is an older man and Obama represents too much change among other things.

Hannah · 1 year ago

Haven't opened the envelopes yet... too scared. And to think the statements don't cover October.

Meanwhile, income is down this year. Hubby is making a bit less than he did 10 years ago even though he's in the same field. But at least his job hasn't been outsourced. I lost my biggest client this year, half my income, due to bankruptcy (due in part to the economy). Since I was a contractor, I got no unemployment benefits (and also have the double whammy of having to match my FICA, ie self employment tax; what a rip-off). I've found a bit of new work but that only covers 25% of my lost work. And we had some extra expenses this year, mostly medical.

I really feel for those at the bottom of the economic ladder, and those who want to retire but now can't. :-(

aftercancer · 1 year ago

My kids college funds are down 18% and 22% percent respectively. We put a little bit each month so for now I'm gonna drink the Kool Aid and keep letting it draft. Can't imagine what the next one is going to look like.

sfmike64 · 1 year ago

I got a statement dated September 28, and since then (not quite 3 weeks), it's lost 28% of its value.

Thanks Bushies.

Just remember...everything they say is a lie, including "Good Morning" and "the sky is blue."