This morning I logged in to check my 401k performance, and I braced myself for the worst.  I knew that I had lost money, but I wasn’t exactly sure of how much.  Right now my portfolio is down 22.9%.  Needless to say I am a little bummed.  I am looking at this as a learning experience.  I am still young, but going forward I am going to make sure that I have money for retirement set aside not only in my 401k, but also in a CD or money market account as well.   

Currently I contribute 6% of my pay to my 401k automatically each month because my employer matches $1.15 per dollar I put in, up to 6%.  It would be crazy if I didn’t do it, because that is free money.  The reason I have so much company stock is because when they match, they put it all into company stock.  Right now I wish I didn’t have that much company stock.  The reason I chose to put so much into the Franklin Templeton Foreign Equity is because it was doing so well historically.  It is currently performing second to worst. 

 As soon as things get better with the stock market, I plan on selling some of my company stock.  Hopefully I won’t lose a lot of money but who knows what the future brings.  I’ll update next month on the current performance then.  Hopefully I’ll be out of the red!

Posted under 401k, Economy, Investments, Money, Retirement