stockmarket

[TerryinMD]

ewoss3,

I am of the opinion that I will invest my hard earned money in other funds for the time being. For the most part, all stocks and funds are going south. But, at least the mutual funds are diversified and not have a CEO who is, well, sometimes a little too iffy.....

Terry

 

[snowman]

Just pay close attention to what the mutual fund invests in, as the so called goals of the fund may be different than what they're actually doing (ie: they advertise the fund as conservative, but actually invest in non-conservative investments).

I seem to recall last summer, there was a bond fund that never valued their holdings properly, and when a "real" valuation was done, the share value plunged 90% or so.

Never believe what you see and never be afraid to question anything as it relates to your own money.

 

[TerryinMD]

snowman,

Yes, good advise.

Another thing that I personally avoid are funds that are not publically listed. Our 401k has a few private funds (might not be the right terminology) only listed by the 401k administrator. The fund manager may have a good sense of how to invest the money put forth, but you do not have the scrutiny of a publicly traded fund. Plus, there are not as many investors involved which does not give the fund manager as much money to invest to possibly increase dividends.

Terry

 

[frank_f15]

now i feel better. knowing i am not the only one watching his 401 go down the tubes. working till 90 ain't so bad/w3tcompact/icons/sad.gif

 

[ewoss3]

Terry, I actually worry more about the senior leadership, you have to wonder if they will pull their head out at some point and ride a few of these groups that constantly want to bicker over who get to sell to a customer

 

[Chuck52]

I'm so knowledgeable about all this that I'm not even sure if mine is a 401k or a 403b./w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif My employer doesn't contribute, so I think it's a 403b, but it's doing the same thing anyway. Every time I think about switching from the stock option to the fixed income option, the market will come up a bit and I'll decide it's gotta do better at least over the next 10 years.....always has...even through the Great Depression, though maybe that was a 20 year window. Now I find myself hoping that technology doesn't do completely away with my specialty in case I want to delay retirement.

Chuck

 

[TerryinMD]

The best advaice that I have heard is to just ride things out.

In todays market, there are no sure bets (unless you have extra money to invest /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif). But alas, I'm not in the position to take advantage of the stressed market. /w3tcompact/icons/sad.gif

Terry