Did my 401k Tank?

I recently shared some very personal information with my coworkers.  They seemed interested, so now I am sharing it with the world. 

Last week somebody asked if I dared to look at my 401k yet.  I commented; it didn’t matter what today’s balance is because I can’t do anything with it for 8.5 years. 

(I don’t plan on retiring in 8.5 years, but I will be 59.5 years old then, and that as far as I know is the first date I could withdraw the money without penalty).

Another person commented on how this is a good time to invest because stocks are on sale.  True, but that doesn’t help my current balance go up, it only helps future balances increase faster. 

So, I am letting you know what my rate of return has been.  But notice I never just pull the data for one day, like the entire media loves to do. The markets hit an all-time high on February 19^th.  I was so excited I had a party and ate pie.   People walked around, congratulating me!  

But until we hit an all-time high again, your rate of return will always be a negative number. 

So go ahead and pull several dates and see what your rate of return is and I’m sure you will find sometimes it is good, and sometimes it is terrible.  In my case, most of the time, it is good.

So go ahead and check out your rates of return.  But keep in mind every day isn’t as awesome as my 51^st birthday.  So don’t use it as your only benchmark. 

This information doesn’t include the amount I have deducted from my paycheck or the amount matched by Willmar Electric every week. What you see above is just the return on the investments made on my behalf.

Keep saving for your retirement because someday it will come, and you will want to have as much money as possible on hand.  (But if you run a TV network only give out information that will cause people to tune in tomorrow).