Current Events > Is now a good time to reduce my 401k contributions?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Seeing that my year to date rate of return is -23.89%. Yikes.

i contribute 10% currently. My company matches up to 6%.

maybe I should take a couple percents away?

Can you afford to keep contributing 10%?

Always make sure you're maxing the employer match. Otherwise you're missing literal free money. So you could drop it to 6% if you're getting cold feet, but I wouldn't go lower.

littlebro07 posted...

Can you afford to keep contributing 10%?

i can, but whats the point if Im basically losing money on it? the market sucks right now

my thought would be to then increase it back to 10% when the market starts going back up. But that could be like a year or two away, no?

Now would be the time to be putting more in wouldn't it?

Buying at a discount

Absolutely not if you can still afford it. You're buying at a discount now and will be happy when things bounce back.

No. That would be incredibly stupid.

The saying is Buy low, sell high.

Its low right now, so you should be buying more, not less.

Chadawah posted...

Now would be the time to be putting more in wouldn't it?

This. You want to be buying more when things are lower.

Ah, I see what you guys mean. I was missing that side of it. Ok Ill leave it at 10%. Its tough to see such a negative rate but in the end itll grow faster the more money Im putting in now.

makes sense- thanks!

My employer just changed retirement fund companies so now my 'year to date' is counting from the beginning of September this year. >_>

It doesn't really matter what the market is doing now since you aren't going to be touching that money for a really long time.

ForTheGlory posted...

No. That would be incredibly stupid.

The saying is Buy low, sell high.

Its low right now, so you should be buying more, not less.

This.

It might hurt now seeing the total number fluctuating and a big negative YTD % but in the long run it'll be worth it.

With long term investments like that it is generally best to try to disconnect yourself from it and just let it ride.

Error1355 posted...

My employer just changed retirement fund companies so now my 'year to date' is counting from the beginning of September this year. >_>

Yeah, we just had a site overhaul, and we can only get numbers from about August of this year. The new company screwed up the transition so badly that there's probably going to be Congressional investigations about the new TSP site lol.

Of course when I try to log on now I just get met with text that says they're having technical difficulties, lmao.

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