For the last few months my 401k has been losing money, Right now I am mostly spread between 5 funds of the 20 or so available in my 401k. I only have 10% in the only available bond fund. Would it be best to throw more of my current balance and future elections into the available bond fund. For the last 3 months, the bond fund is the only one of 20 or so that is showing positive growth.

I think now is a good time to increase your contribution to your 401k while prices are down.  When you plan on retiring?  If not for a while, ride it out or buy in more while prices are down if you can.

Quoted: I think now is a good time to increase your contribution to your 401k while prices are down.  When you plan on retiring?  If not for a while, ride it out or buy in more while prices are down if you can.

I will this spring when I get a raise, I plan on putting my entire raise in there and continuing to live off the same take home pay. I am just concerned that the market as a whole is going to see flat to possibly negative growth in the next 12-18 months. I am just wondering if pushing all my contributions to the available bond fund would help me protect what I already have. I'm not planning on retiring for another 20 years or so, but I am also not anywhere near where I wanted to be financially at this point in my life.

Do you have the option of changing your future allocations while leaving your current investments where they are?  If so you may want to direct all new investments into the bond funds until the market comes back.

If you rebalance your portfolio now you'll loose because the market is down.  The magic question is will the market go down more in the next 12-18 months enought to make your current loss (if you sell) a better option than leaving it where it is.


Sorry I don't have any better advice.  Consider this a bump.

I've always heard it's better to be invested in stocks when they start to gain in value just after a down period, than it is to be completely out of stocks during a down period.

In other words, the losses avoided by being out of the market during a bearish period are outweighed by the gains that are missed when stocks are just coming out of a bear market. I would stick with they mix that you currently hold. I also agree with 'tax diversifing' by having about half of your retirement savings in a Roth (either IRA or 401 k).

Quoted: I am just concerned that the market as a whole is going to see flat to possibly negative growth in the next 12-18 months. I am just wondering if pushing all my contributions to the available bond fund would help me protect what I already have. I'm not planning on retiring for another 20 years or so, but I am also not anywhere near where I wanted to be financially at this point in my life.

If you aren't retiring for 20 years, who cares what the market does in the next 12 to 18 months?

I would not put any more money into bonds with this timeframe.  The return over time just isn't there.  Bonds are to protect your money, not grow it.  With 20 years to go, you need growth.

I would like to retire in 20 years, but I don't think that's going to happen... I may well have 30 to go.  But both my IRA and my 401(k) are very heavily in stocks.  I love seeing the market go down... it means each contribution buys that many more shares, so when the market goes back up, my balance balloons accordingly.

I look at it this way... if stocks turn out to not be a good long-term bet, then I'm screwed anyway.  I might as well play the game that the odds and history tell me to.

I've been putting 20% of my 401k in cash for a while now. Today I took half that cash and bought shares in the S&P 500 fund, if the market continues down, I'll do the same with the other half.

Now's a good time to buy unless you plan to retire soon.

FWIW charts say that 90% equities gives you 40% loss exposure. I've no links ........ DIY. Invest globally is my advice the planet is becoming flat, of course LrgCapGrth funds usually have multi-nationals equites. Good Luck!

Quoted: I think now is a good time to increase your contribution to your 401k while prices are down.  When you plan on retiring?  If not for a while, ride it out or buy in more while prices are down if you can.

I agree, I've increased mine by 4% this year and plan increase by another 4% over the next couple months.

Quoted: Quoted: I think now is a good time to increase your contribution to your 401k while prices are down.  When you plan on retiring?  If not for a while, ride it out or buy in more while prices are down if you can. I agree, I've increased mine by 4% this year and plan increase by another 4% over the next couple months.

+ another vote here for what these guys said.