[Twilight]

My (outside the US) equivalent of a 401k is -0.5%. My cash deposits are doing a lot better and are currently guaranteed by the printing press of government.

Sadly I am stuck with the provider I have and the menu they offer is pathetic. Gilts and cash are the only sensible options in there. The rest is all AAA soup and various passive stock market trackers, which needless to say I am out of.

Anyone intelligent reading the prospectuses should be struck by the realisation that this meagre offering is what you get for signing on the dotted line and forgetting about it for years. You get what you pay for in life, and when the plan assumes you pay the manager a fraction of a percent per year and forget about it, you are getting the value to match. I could do better. We will see whether these games have a future in a few years though.

[joeltrout]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', '
')
I haven't rolled the money into an IRA because I don't need to assume the risk of trading. My strategy is simply to hang on for seven more years, earn the 4-5% annual rate and the compounded earnings, and cash out when I'm 59 1/2.

[Heineken]

My 401k is with Vanguard too, Joel.

Oh I had the very very best benefits when I worked, for a pharmacy organization. Pharmacists don't shirk when it comes to paying themselves. Not only did I have the 401k, I had an old-style pension (the sort that the employee doesn't have to contribute a dime to). On top of those two entitities, I had a gold-plated annuity started during a previous job, which I continued to fund myself. Then I was hoping for some Social Security. I called my approach to retirement a quadruple whammy.

My main concern, stated ad nauseum by me here, is whether the 401k money will be worth anything when I'm 59 1/2. Hyperinflation, you know.

[joeltrout]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', 'M')y 401k is with Vanguard too, Joel.

[MonexFRAUD]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MicroHydro', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('solar1', 'S')ince I am in my late 30s and won't be able to draw from any of these accounts until >2030, should I immediately STOP making investments into these accounts?

[Iaato]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('van64', 'Y')ou guys crack me up--totally. Let's examine this like the intelligent people behind us: those who will take your place in the 401-k and Roth IRA contributions line and take advantage of the depressed equity prices that your for-gone purchases are creating.

Since 1802, US stocks have returned an average of 8.5% annually. Year in and year out. Put that in your compound pipe and smoke it. This was 60 years before crude oil was even DISCOVERED and commercialized in PA, folks. Sure, there have been good years and bad years: wars and famine and global pestilence. Gold and silver do not come close to returning what stocks return; neither have bonds or treasuries or any other interest-bearing instrument. Land? Well, it's the closest at about 8% annually. . . .

If you truly believe in peak oil, put your money where your mouth is and purchase oil and gas equities.

[the48thronin]

as to general motors.....HMMM some of the same companies that made horse drawn wagons make up GM now.

Do you feel all possibility of invention adaptation and survival of this corporation are past?


Peak oil may not mean the end of stocks, nor the end of civilization. It may mean the beginning of a growth in a different direction just as oil caused one so many years ago.


Try not to whine to much, look for opportunity instead of spending your days hiding in the cellar. You might just be the guy who comes up with the "self propelled wagon" idea for the future.

THE GLASS MIGHT IN FACT BE 1/2 FULL!

[the48thronin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tyler_JC', 'I') wasn't really comparing myself to the millions of other people who have put WAY more money in than I have. I was just coming to that realization again that SS is a joke and I'm being lied to by the all powerful, "They".

[MonexFRAUD]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('the48thronin', '(') Really live, be your own person. Enjoy what you have and build your own future in spite of what their thievery takes along the way!)

[joeltrout]

I am currently 25. I contribute the max to my 401k and the max in my Roth IRA. I do this because I believe Social Security will not be there when I retire in 40 years.

Additionally I save outside of retirement in a general investing account and have preps that I buy on a regular basis.

joeltrout

[Specop_007]

I think one would be a bloody fool not to invest something.

Peak Oil is the redefinition of the world as we know it, its hardly the end of it. Before we even knew what oil was we had people, business, money, traders....

We survived before oil and we'll for damn sure survive after. The key is to be one of those thats makes it through the changes.

[deMolay]

http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/ret ... titialskip

[Jotapay]

Does anyone still put money into a 401k?

[Specop_007]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Jotapay', 'D')oes anyone still put money into a 401k?

[jimmyz]

I do 6%,, the company i work for never has matched.

[emeraldg40]

I get 1.25 for every 1.00. Id be a fool not to.

[JJ]

I get 1.60 for every dollar I put in up to 2.5%, so I put 2.5%

[Jotapay]

With the market crashing, finance companies blatantly lying to everyone, the US government considering stealing everyone's 401k's and replacing them with t-bills, and cash commanding such a premium, I have no idea why someone would be putting money into a 401k right now, unless you just don't care about your money, I guess.

Maybe if we get a Zimbabwe style stock market it might make sense to ride the wave of inflation that way, but so do PMs and other commodities as well.

[emeraldg40]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Jotapay', 'W')ith the market crashing, finance companies blatantly lying to everyone, the US government considering stealing everyone's 401k's and replacing them with t-bills, and cash commanding such a premium, I have no idea why someone would be putting money into a 401k right now, unless you just don't care about your money, I guess.

Maybe if we get a Zimbabwe style stock market it might make sense to ride the wave of inflation that way, but so do PMs and other commodities as well.

[JJ]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Jotapay', 'W')ith the market crashing, finance companies blatantly lying to everyone, the US government considering stealing everyone's 401k's and replacing them with t-bills, and cash commanding such a premium, I have no idea why someone would be putting money into a 401k right now, unless you just don't care about your money, I guess.

Maybe if we get a Zimbabwe style stock market it might make sense to ride the wave of inflation that way, but so do PMs and other commodities as well.