It was a nice 401K while it lasted.

Curse the fed and democrats for ruining trump's perfect economy! It's not his responsibility if Americans are dying, OK? Hopefully he can find some time to golf and get his mind off this whole situation.

All the mainstream Democrats are coalescing around Biden. Sanders is toast.

@1: Are you retiring today?

Try not to panic ladies.

This just in...

RIP Max von Sydow

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-51803195

@5
No
BTW - I'm curious if any sloggers shorted Boeing in the last few months

@11 I think Costco stopping samples is the first sign of the apocalypse.

With the oil price crash, Ru$$ia and $audi Arabia are finally getting the industrial strength kick in the balls that they both deserve.

@10: Then you have nothing to whine about. The opposite, really.

@10
I'm not whining.
Anyone who buys stock knows there are risks that the markets will go down.
I think this is worse for those who recently went into stocks.
Given the disruptions to many of the business sectors, I expect many stocks will go down further.

WHAT?
They're cancelling St Patrick's Day parades?
Now I am whining!

@5 What are the chances someone is retiring today or already retired and dependent on their 401K? As long as its not me, fuck them I guess.

Not sure how I would feel about C-19 if I were a millennial.
A disease that way disproportionately affects boomers, wipes out trillions in boomer paper assets, and seems destined to have a depressing effect on real estate prices. Kind of a win-win-win.

@18: I didn't release the coronavirus, nor did I force people to be entirely dependent on one fund for their entire retirement, so you need to complain to someone else about it.

Not my department. Blame the Boomers who set up this situation, who of course would be the people retiring today. But, they often have pensions, now don't they?

Theodore dear, the boomers were the generation that rejected pensions in favor of 401K's. I remember well the new people they were hiring at Mutual of Omaha in the 1980's, who rejected the pension plan because "they could do a better job managing their retirement money".

I'll just quietly murmur that my parents enjoyed an income of $5,000 a month on that pension until they breathed their last breaths.

@23 -- that is a BIG Animal.

@Kallipugos -- I LOLOLOLOLOed
Just like TeeHeeHeelOH,TOSIXNINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

It certainly would 'refresh' our
Presidential Candidates Field
to say the Least.

"I'll just quietly murmur that my parents enjoyed an income of $5,000 a month on that pension until they breathed their last breaths." --Catalina Vel-DuRay

Whoa -- a person could Retire on that
quite comfortably.

But how woulld Republicans strip-mine the Citizenry if they didn't "Privatize" our Essentials? Their ability to Make a Killing off their 'fellow man' is The First Rule. None of the others matter.

@25: No, they are the generation that enjoyed pensions until they were in charge, and then they switched people to 401ks to save money, but retained their own pensions. All the Boomers I work with have pensions waiting for them. 401ks were just getting started in the early 80's.

Those two people you met at work in the 80's does not change this.

Theodore, that's certainly an interesting theory. Would you mind citing some of the places, outside of government and unionized work forces, that still have pensions?

"The current number of infected people in Washington State is currently 136."

Don't you mean "Confirmed Cases," Nathalie?

"136" cases divided by 19 deaths is a 14% death toll.

@29: Basically every large company that has had people working there since before the 80's who are still there. As I said, the Boomers I work with still have pension plans because it was in the employment contract they signed way back in the 70's/80's, but has since been discontinued for people employed after that. You can literally just Google which companies still have pensions, some still offer them.

It is only a "theory' is you are completely clueless and have done nothing to assuage that ignorance.

"From the actual experts, the market opened 1,800 points down and the S&P 500 fell 7 percent."

Whoa -- that famous trump Slump
is Not Looking Good.

I'm sensing a Major trump Recession
if not The trump Greatest Depression.

Maga, my ass.

The Russell 2000 is now in Bear Market officially.

Dow 1,000. Learn it, live it, love it.

@22 Bro, you're all mixed up. I'm not complaining at all. I'm agreeing with YOU. If it doesn't effect me then its not a problem , right?

@34: Funny how no one was saying their futures were destroyed when the DOW was at 17.5 back in 2015, but now that the DOW is at 24 the sky is falling and everyone's retirement is ruined.

Look, I know that basic financial literacy is not really a thing on Slog, but damn...

@34

Teddy saw the value of jis 401k Drop Like a Rock and he is shitting his pants.
The whole "are you retiring today" bullshit is just a feeble attempt to convince himself that the market crashing isn't going to affect him.

@35

Basic financial literacy?

If you lost money, then you have less money.

That's basic financial literacy.

Give us a break Teddy. You have less money today than you did last week.
That means you're fucked.
Basically.

@13, with production costs of around $3/bbl, the Saudis will be able to ride it out for a bit. Both they and the Russians are eager to take out the gringo shale producers, whose high production costs (and high levels of junk bond debt, a lot of which is coming due) will leave them underwater.

3: Great, now maybe he'll be able to hold thoughts and speak coherently as he campaigns against Trump and drones on about how inspiring the status quo is.

@37: No it doesn't. You might be fucked if you panicked, but stop projecting.

You only lose money when you sell, but your portfolio may use value. It would only be an issue now if someone had an emergency where they needed those funds, but had no other way to acquire them.

A 401K is a retirement account. It is not a checking or savings account. That means that you do not withdraw from it until you are of a certain age. But still, one wonders why I would be panicking when the value of my portfolio is still way higher than it was five years ago? You make no sense.

Do you guys go out and plant a garden and dig up the seeds every hour to see how they are doing?

But you are right about one thing, I am going to be affected by this dip. I am going to buy twice as many shares while they are on sale, and I might refinance my house. Going to save thousands.

@40

The market is extremely volatile at the moment.

That usually isn't a very good sign.

By all means, go buy up as much stock as you can.
Sometimes gambling can pay off.

Spin that wheel.

Speaking of Olde Peeps,
should trumpfy somehow get four more years
Boomer's gonna be SHOCKED how swifty
REpubs dismantle Social Security, etc.

"no one was saying their futures were destroyed when the DOW was at 17.5 back in 2015"

I love how you can just make shit up and its gospel. Its rad, I love it. Nobody was worried about their retirement in 2015. Don't know what this has to do with me agreeing with you that if its not me it doesent matter.

@45
The GOP should self-quarantine for safety reasons- until Nov 4th.

@41: Funny how your job changes based on what point you are trying to make. Some of us actually have good credit. You should at least do five minutes of research before you start lying if you want anyone to take you seriously.

@42: It is not gambling, if you have any clue about what you are doing. But You obviously do not, so I can see why you consider investment to be gambling.

@47: Whatever you say, chicken little.

@48: Sure, if you are dumb and put all your eggs in one basket.

Theodore dear, I looked it up, and 16% of American companies (including Coca-Cola and Johnson & Johnson) still offer pensions. But you are mistaken that people who were first employed under a pension system are always still under that system. Many companies "converted" their pension plans to 401k's in the 80's and 90's. Indeed it wasn't until Congress stepped in in the 2006 with the Pension Protection Act that that slowed, but by then it was too late.

51: Yeah, he doesn't know wtf he's talking about. I know a lot of boomers whose pensions were replaced. I also know a lot of boomers whose pensions were raided.