Will this continue? Is my 401k being resuscitated? Should we be encouraged or is this just a fluke?


Dow Soars as Investors Back Bad Asset Plan
Wall Street Gives Obama's Plan Vote of Confidence; Economists Mixed If Plan Will Work
By BETSY STARK
March 23, 2009



Bank stocks soared on Wall Street today as investors bet the Treasury Department's plan to help buy bad bank debt will put the nation's beleaguered banks on more solid financial footing.
Photo: Obama's $1 Trillion Plan to End Bank Crisis: Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner Hopes to Attract Private Investors to Buy Toxic Assets
Wall Street seemed buoyed by the Obama administration's announcement to remove so-called toxic... Expand
Wall Street seemed buoyed by the Obama administration's announcement to remove so-called toxic assets -- many of them bad mortgage investments -- from the banks' balance sheets through a public-private partnership, with the Dow up nearly 500 points in the day's trading. Collapse

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 500 points, marking the fifth biggest one-day point gain in history and signaling a strong endorsement of the Obama administration's move to help the nation's ailing banks take $1 trillion in bad assets off their books.

The rally came after Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner announced the details of the Public-Private Investment Program, which seeks to entice private investors with government incentives to buy the so-called toxic assets from the banks' books -- an effort to thaw the credit freeze and make it easier for people to get loans.
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I get nervous when they start talking about "Public - Private" partnership (“PPIFs”). . Sounds too much like Fannie and Freddie to me. I think that the plan proposed by Treasury Sec. Geithner in the Wall Street Journal gets investors to buy up useless cr*p at inflated prices with a gvt guarantee (taking over the role AIG had) .But even worse The Feds put up about 88% of the money... PPIP is issuing a $ trillion in debt to finance this Bad Asset Relief Fund (BARF),and Private parties like hedge funds and Goldman Sachs put up 12% .That 12 % makes it appear that the private sector is investing again.

The winners are in Wall Street .So of course they are creaming their pants. The losers ? Us .

All last week the Congress provoked a mob like reaction to AIG bonuses. The amount of taxpayer money Obama and Geithner are about to blow will make AIG bonuses seem like chump change.

By the way Orwell would be proud . Cr*p that was called at one time toxic assets are now being called legacy assets .

Don't count on your 401k being rescued. The govt plans on taking all pension and retirement plan accounts soon and making them the government's. Better get your money out of that account before you have a minus zero balance. Too many people have literally (there are several threads on AMHD that say just that) had their 401k's disappear overnight. Don't worry, it won't happen to you as you have O paying your mortgage and putting gas in your car.

And gave back 115 today.

I'm not investing for one day, one year, 10 years - maybe 20 years. With that in mind, I think its still a good time to max the pre tax retirement, and keep an eye out for good buys.





G&P

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Originally Posted by inthebox

and gave back 115 today.

I'm not investing for one day, one year, 10 years - maybe 20 years. With that in mind, I think its still a good time to max the pre tax retirement, and keep an eye out for good buys.





G&P

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Good call. Why let someone else have the use of your money in the hopes(?) that it will still be there when you wish to retire? The 401k's are the biggest scam of this or any century. Just another way of letting the bankers and brokers "use" your money any way they want to and when they want to, take it all away from you and you are left holding a worthless piece of paper euphamistically called a "monthly statement of accounts". What hogwash.

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Originally Posted by twinkiedooter

Don't count on your 401k being rescued. The govt plans on taking all pension and retirement plan accounts soon and making them the government's. Better get your money out of that account before you have a minus zero balance. Too many people have literally (there are several threads on AMHD that say just that) had their 401k's disappear overnight. Don't worry, it wont happen to you as you have O paying your mortgage and putting gas in your car.

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Sorry twink, all of your posts are so full of gloom and doom that I can't ever take them seriously. The gov. is not planning on taking my pension. Taking money out of my 401K at this time would be the absolute WORST thing I could do not. At present, it is just a paper loss. It is no fun to watch it decline, but given the years left that we are going to need it, it doesn't REALLY effect us. If we needed our money in 5 years or less, I'd consider getting out. As it is, we only have a loss on the books, not in our actual wallet.

Why would O pay my mortgage? No one has ever paid our mortgage but us. Never been late in 28 years. Not only have we never taken money from the gov, we have never even taken money from our parents, as many of our peers have done. We plan smart, live well within our means with money to spare and have always been responsible and taken care of ourselves. Obama is going to put gas in my car? Where in the world did you come up with that?

You are still just as bitter, sour, and negative as usual. I really feel bad for you.

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Originally Posted by inthebox

and gave back 115 today.

I'm not investing for one day, one year, 10 years - maybe 20 years. With that in mind, I think its still a good time to max the pre tax retirement, and keep an eye out for good buys.





G&P

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It's a great time to keep an eye out for good buys. The economy WILL come back. It always has. Twenty something's, that have the luxury of time should be grabbing the good stuff.

Personally... id pound all you can in to get your employer match... call the 401k a scam all you want... the "free money" I've gained from the employer match has been absolutely lovely, even when the market has dived. Sure... it pains me to see where I stand now versus a year or two ago... but when I look at dollars invested versus overall position, I'm still OK and looking for good gains in the next two years as we turn the corner.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by twinkiedooter

Good call. Why let someone else have the use of your money in the hopes(?) that it will still be there when you wish to retire? The 401k's are the biggest scam of this or any century. Just another way of letting the bankers and brokers "use" your money any way they want to and when they want to, take it all away from you and you are left holding a worthless piece of paper euphamistically called a "monthly statement of accounts". What hogwash.

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OMG, I could not disagree with you more. 401k's the biggest scam of this or any other century?? WOW,:eek: let me get back up on my chair.

We have made more money than we could have ever made with any other investment tool available. Not to mention, the part my husbands company matches. We have always invested the max amt. of his salary that they allowed, then we were not taxed on that money, then the company basically gave us and additional 50% of what we invested. You would be a fool not to take advantage of your companies 401K plan.

Where do you invest your money?

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Originally Posted by kp2171

personally... id pound all you can in to get your employer match... call the 401k a scam all ya want... the "free money" ive gained from the employer match has been absolutely lovely, even when the market has dived. sure... it pains me to see where i stand now versus a year or two ago... but when i look at dollars invested versus overall position, im still ok and looking for good gains in the next two years as we turn the corner.

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Finally!! Someone that thinks like an intelligent progressive investor!

Well... past the employer match, what to do? I don't know.

We've invested in a roth, a 529 for my son, and a rental property... we aren't all that active or diversified... we have a couple of decades before retirement, so time to rebound, adjust, etc... but still... when I look at my dollars investested versus overall gain with employer match and yearly gains, I'm doing fine, even when the crap is hitting the fan.

After the employer match, I don't know what to say.

The guy down the block seems to make a very nice living off rehabing "muscle cars" for the newly-retired-couldnt-afford-it-when-i-was-a-kid set.

If he drives that damn black el camino past my house one more time I just might need to buy the damn thing to keep him from flaunting it.

I want his life.

What the hell was the OP?

Twinky has a point. The idea of confiscation of 401Ks to be incorporated into a national retirement savings has been floated by the statists in Congress. I don't know where that will go but the proposal is on the table.

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Under the plan, Americans' existing 401(k) accounts would be transferred into the GRA and would grow at an average yield of around 3%. The subsequent loss of preferential tax treatment among US employers who offer the qualified plans would be used to make a $600 per person government contribution into the plans. In addition, the GRA's would require a mandatory 5% contribution (tax) by all US workers.

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http://www.usnews.com/blogs/capital-...01k-plans.html

But 401Ks as currently formatted are no scams. I can't speak to anyone else's experience but my own.
I max out on my contributions and do enjoy an employer % match (that alone is great return on your investment ) . The guaranteed fund in our plan is above money market rates so when the markets were peaked last year I shifted all my funds into it.
At the beginning of the year I recognized that there were opportunities to get back into stock funds so I again shifted my employer's contribution while I kept my contributions going into the guaranteed fund.
Beyond that I have a portfolio of various stocks I maintain with an on- line broker account. There will be bear market rallies throughout the recession and they represent buying opportunities .

I would love to be 20-something now and know what I do about how the market works. I was late into the save for retirement game (at least seriously ) . My 401k has been a godsend so to speak . Before they came around my bosses managed the retirement plan and in my view did not take full advantage of market options . When I took over managing it;Until the last couple of years, I was aggressive in my selections.Then I repositioned my funds to secure them .On paper that was the right move.