[irishjuggler]

“A lot of people at my work are converting their 401k’s out of stocks. To me, they are just locking in their losses and with the inflation rate, they are just going to lose more if they have cash positions.”

I’m with you. It’s not especially fun to see your balances dwindling, but the stupid money buys high and sells low. And that’s what we’re witnessing. The smart money rides it out. The market might take a year to bounce back... or 5 years ... or 10 years, but when it does, you’ll eventually be glad that you didn’t sell into the bear market.

[Billthedrill]

Concur. But oh, it’s hard not to. Lots of us may not have 10 years.

[SamAdams76]

No doubt we are seeing some panic selling. Usually by people who check their balances several times a day, causing them to make rash and poor decisions. I've had a 401k for close to 40 years and never once bailed on it. Though I have adjusted the allocation ratio over the years as I age. Even now, I'm still 65% in stocks.

During the "scary times" of the 1987 crash, the 2000-2002 Y2K/Dot.com crash and the 2008 wipeout (DJIA lost 35% that year!), I rarely even checked my statements. I just kept contributing to the 401k and left things allocated as they were. Each and every time, the markets came back to reach new heights.

Now that I'm near retirement, I'm forced to run a net worth on myself every month so it's been depressing seeing the balance down YOY by a six figure amount. But I'm holding strong. If in the highly unlikely event the market does crash to zero, I will be in the same boat as everybody else. Having retirement accounts decimated will be the least of our worries if that happens.

[Night Hides Not]

If you're in your 30s to 40s, and making monthly payments into your 401K, there's no need to make a change. You can't take any losses off on your taxes, and there's likely to be dividends and capital gain distributions as well.

I lived through Black Monday in October 1987, as a stockbroker for now defunct EF Hutton. Prompted me to reconsider putting my accounting degree to use in a different field...lol.