For those of you investing in a 401K investment plan you’ve hopefully noticed something good over the past few months… you’ve made some of your money back. With the economic downturn most Americans took a beating in regards to their retirement savings but since then things have begun to look up. From CNN:
Among the swell of bad news that occurred courtesy of the financial crisis last fall is that 401(k) investors got slammed. And a new report released Tuesday quantifies just how hard.
Taking into account both contributions and investment return, the average 401(k) balance fell 24.3% in 2008, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute and the Investment Company Institute. That brought the average balance down to $45,519, nearly 31% below the $65,454 recorded at the end of 2007.
Thankfully, that’s not the end of the story. Many investors have recouped a lot of what they lost. There are two reasons: the S&P 500 has been on a fairly steady upward march in the past several months; and most participants have kept making contributions to their 401(k)s despite the crisis.
For the full article you can click here…
What did you do with your retirement savings? Keep investing,? Stayed out of the market? Let us know what you did and if it worked.
we kept saving ..even though it was hard..but as the post says things are turning around and I am starting to see positive returns.
I know many ppl who lost over 50k in their 401K. They stuck with it. I have a IRA and did not gain anything the past few years(my first year I gained 600 bucks)but I did not lose a dime these past years.
To everyone, please set up a retirement plan.