What does this fragile economy mean for my family and our 401K?
Erin asked:
I am a mother of 3 young boys. At present I am staying at home. My husband works and has a small, less than $10,000, 401k. Are we safe? What should we do to prepare ourselves to sustain the economy now and if it should worsen. Our home is paid for, we have very little credit card debt, and we have to car loans under 15,000 total on our family vechicles.
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I am a mother of 3 young boys. At present I am staying at home. My husband works and has a small, less than $10,000, 401k. Are we safe? What should we do to prepare ourselves to sustain the economy now and if it should worsen. Our home is paid for, we have very little credit card debt, and we have to car loans under 15,000 total on our family vechicles.
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Gefilte Girl:
[sigh] There was things put into place in the 1930’s that keep a bank from losing your money. FDIC and others. Nobody is going to touch your money.
September 17, 2008, 1:44 pmartgecko1999:
while the banks can’t touch your money
September 20, 2008, 7:06 am401k accounts are invested in markets
so yes they can lose value. There are not many options available.
You will need to ride out these difficult times.
You may TRY to get your money out of your 401k, but
the penalties you will pay will probably be worse than losses
in your account.
Hope for the best down the road, but always
try to prepare for the worst.
Set aside an emergency fund (cookie jar fund)
Gem:
Most 401k’s are invested in the stock market.
In the short term, hopefully not long term, you are going to lose money.
But, as you aren’t supposed to touch that money for 30 years anyway, you should be fine by retirement.
Just imagine if you were already retired and living on your distributions from your 401k, now that would be horrible.
Hang on folks, it is going to be a bumpy ride.
Oh yeah, buy food & stock water, we may really need it and food is the only thing going up in value.
September 22, 2008, 5:48 pm