401K contribution

madscotsman

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I am contributing 15% to my 401K with an employer match of 5%. Been at my job for 13yrs. Just like everyone else, my 401K has taken a pretty good hit so far. I'm 47, so I have a while to retirement hopefully. Anyone else thinking of or actually reducing their 401k contribution during this madness? I hate to think I'm just putting money in there to be lost. The past 3-4 years I've been aggressively increasing my contribution each year trying to decrease our taxable income and balance out the taxes we always owe. Feel like I'd rather have that money for probably the rest of this year, then I could move my contribution back up whenever the market starts to improve again. My job just put a 5% bonus in our 401k's for a financially good 2019, that $$$ was pretty much gone instantly in loss.
 

PowerWheels

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If your job is stable I'd increase the contribution. At 47 if you believe the US will be stronger in 10 years it's a buy long term.

A rental house in the portfolio seems more attractive today though as the non equity side isn't paying anything.

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03SVT10

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The money you are putting in now will be worth that much more in 10 years. You are buying at a discount now every time you get paid and contribute. It will help you recover faster. If your company just put in a 5% bonus, you should not have just lost it all. Unless "just put in" means in January or February.
 

sleek98

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I reduced my 401k contributions, to the min to get the match, middle of last year since I thought the market was getting high. Market tanked and I have increased it to what I was putting in before. Right now you want to buy heavy since stocks are "on sale" compared to what they were 9 months ago.
 

jrandy

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If you stop contributing now, you'll miss out on all the gains when it comes back up. Keep dumping money in if you can afford it and you'll be happy you did.
 

q6543

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I increased mine to company max 50% until i max for the year. I only get 6.5% match.

Imho... you can't get enough money in fast enough... the longer recovery takes the better.
 

Coiled03

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Definitely don't reduce, or stop contributions. Though you might want to revisit the distribution.
 

PowerWheels

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Open a Roth IRA if you don't already have one and start contributing to that instead of increasing the contributions to the 401k.
I actually did this several years back. More investment options.

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Adower

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Keep the course. You still have 10 plus years to retirement. The market historically has always gone up. This is just a blip in the radar.

Also, you haven’t technically lost anything yet as you haven’t realized the losses by removing money.
 

PowerWheels

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Keep the course. You still have 10 plus years to retirement. The market historically has always gone up. This is just a blip in the radar.

Also, you haven’t technically lost anything yet as you haven’t realized the losses by removing money.
Not only that, its not like you will all of a sudden pull all your money out at once when you retire. That 401k will likely be used slowly over 25+ years.

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nxhappy

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take whatever cushion money you have and pump it into the market. Buy as much as you can. In 2 years, you will thank me. apple, microsoft, google, amazon. that's a start ...
 

verbal

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I am contributing 15% to my 401K with an employer match of 5%. Been at my job for 13yrs. Just like everyone else, my 401K has taken a pretty good hit so far. I'm 47, so I have a while to retirement hopefully. Anyone else thinking of or actually reducing their 401k contribution during this madness? I hate to think I'm just putting money in there to be lost. The past 3-4 years I've been aggressively increasing my contribution each year trying to decrease our taxable income and balance out the taxes we always owe. Feel like I'd rather have that money for probably the rest of this year, then I could move my contribution back up whenever the market starts to improve again. My job just put a 5% bonus in our 401k's for a financially good 2019, that $$$ was pretty much gone instantly in loss.

The S&P500 is at the same level it was at a year ago. You really have not taken that big of a hit considering the situation. Even though it is hard to watch gains disappear you should not be discouraged about continuing to contribute as much as you can.
 

VENOM1

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If your 401K is established, why not diversify your portfolio and look at indexed account? With some money in an account with a floor and ceiling, especially as you get older, not to mention the tax benefits, on top of a variable account is smart.
 

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