[jonrick46]

I lost $6,000 from the $17,000 I had in my job 401K.

[Perseverando]

I’m really sorry to hear that. I think the smart money got out of the market before August 1. Lots of others are bailing out as well.

It’s nearly impossible to catch a falling knife. Don’t be the last one to unload. Preservation of capital is king. Unfortunately inflation is in the not too distant future to further undermine our savings. IMHO.

[DoughtyOne]

You lost nothing unless you sold.

Hang in there.

[Myrddin]

In the two weeks following Obama's election, my retirement 401k dropped from around $980k to $413k. I lost another $250k in company stock that week. Very little recovery and that is the core resource to sustain me in retirement. A year later, I had to deal with a functional layoff that burned 520 hours of accrued vacation down to 32 hours. Obama has been a total disaster for my financial planning.

The bastards are plotting a means of stealing the rest with some crap program that will be labeled ObamaSave.

[grobdriver]

I lost $6,000 from the $17,000 I had

You didn't "lose" it unless you moved what was left to another account.

If you haven't changed your distribution, then you're merely in the same boat as a lot of us are - waiting for the market to grow back, as it always has, just like after 2008.

Sit tight - relax.