401k experts help needed - how to best ride out a storm

Just asking for advice on how to allocate a 401k for what seems to be a quickly coming crash.

This is just my opinion from all the articles and warnings floating around about serious upcomming economic problems.

Is anyone else concerned about what they are hearing? And if you are, what have you done with your 401k?

I'm currently allocated in what would be considered a moderately aggressive allotment. Since I dropped so far the last crash, I wanted to check with people smarter than me on this one .

Move the majority into fixed income or short term? Other things to do?

If you haven't already done any moving, when do you plan to if at all?

Thanks alot for any opinions or help. If something is comming, hopefully something with be left.

I haven't done any moving in the sense of reallocating to other funds; however, I did take out a loan on my 401k. I paid of my house, credit cards and student loans. Now I make one single payment back to my 401k at 5% interest annually. I figure that I might as well be free of debt and I'm paying interest back to myself. That's a win/win for me.

Of course, if the market turns for the better, then I may be kicking myself.

I don't have any advice to give on this, as I am no economist. AND, I would take any other ATSers advice with a grain of salt.

Originally posted by usmc858
Just asking for advice on how to allocate a 401k for what seems to be a quickly coming crash.

This is just my opinion from all the articles and warnings floating around about serious upcomming economic problems.

Is anyone else concerned about what they are hearing? And if you are, what have you done with your 401k?

I'm currently allocated in what would be considered a moderately aggressive allotment. Since I dropped so far the last crash, I wanted to check with people smarter than me on this one

.

Move the majority into fixed income or short term? Other things to do?

If you haven't already done any moving, when do you plan to if at all?

Thanks alot for any opinions or help. If something is comming, hopefully something with be left.

Well if some major event happens like the collapse of the US government, financial infrastructure, etc - than unfortunately your 401K might be rendered useless anyway. This is something that keeps me up at night as well because I've socked away a decent amount of money in both my companie's 401K and a personal IRA account I started.

But my advice to you is to speak with your company's HR (or 'human capital') department and find out what the most conservative stock offerings and put all your money into them. And depending who the vendor is they probably have some 'target date' offerings that tend to lean on the conservative side as well depending on how far away you are from retirement. Definitely what to stay away from any real estate or international stocks too because they tend to be high risk high reward and if there truly is a global economic meltdown than you can kiss any money you have invested in them goodbye.

401k are notoriously select & do not offer you a wide scope of alternative investing...

if i didn't have my nest egg in a ROTH since Y2k... right now i'd be opting for positions
in places like Singapore, Maylasia, SE Asia...a good bit in all these 'developing'
countries...bonds & even ETFs

when i was strapped with a 401k allocation, we only had 5 Funds from Merrill Lynch to
select from--- what a Joke !
but because that was the only option open to us employees...& the only way to get 1/4%
matching funds contributed... I held my nose & went with 'Global Growth'...

its all a racket -> the big funds like the one mentioned, are permitted by law to act as
'coustodians' and only those accredited Funds are allowed to rake in your money---
collect their fees quarterly---and leave you with all the risk for less than 1% growth.profit
to your account...
piss poor situation...


the best you can do is begin a self-directed IRA, the ROTH type of IRA at that...
and miss out on any rare matching fund contributions by your employer, if it exists at all...

its your money, its your risk in the decisions you make... don't allow the mega funds to skim off
1 1/2% to 2+% quarterly to "manage" your money !~!!

Dont do anything stupid.

If you have that much money invested you will need to speak with a CFP/CRPC. If you haven't already, I am not sure why.

DO NOT listen to anyone on this website.

That is priceless information.

I own and investment firm and could help. Would need to know more about your situation, risk tolerance, and your 401k options. Then I can give you my opinion.

I tend to agree on the point of . .

Don’t listen to anyone on this site.


It seems a large percentage of people here are just plain negative about everything. Many have ‘dropped out’ of main stream society. No credit cards, no real jobs, anti government, just plain anti social. Not the kind of people who have the best track record of investing.

If the world economy drops into the crapper, it won’t make much difference if you are invested in stocks or bonds. The old ideas about spreading your money around is still the best. Take comfort in knowing that your employer is doubling your 401K contributions. Show me any other investment that will do that year after year.