this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2024
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When people say they lost their 401k (lemmy.world)
submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by root@lemmy.world to c/personalfinance@lemmy.ml
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I've had a few people in my life tell me that they lost X % of their 401k during the (insert financial crisis).

Recently when a friend told me they lost 50% of their 401k in the 2008 time, I said: "Well you didn't really lose anything, because you still had the stocks, and even though they were worth less, you still had the same number of stocks, so you could have waited it out?"

To which my friend replied: "That would be true if the person managing my 401k didn't sell".

I hadn't actually thought about that. I mean personally most of my funds are in age based target funds, but those funds are also managed by someone, right? So is there a way to prevent someone from selling your stocks if the economy tanks? I have a pretty long retirement horizon (still in my 30s) so I can weather the storm for a bit.

Edit: Thank you everyone for the insightful answers. This really helps to clear things up

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[–] originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

when i cared about this stuff awhile back, i remember you could specify when setting up the account how aggressive you wanted it managed. from zero (set it and forget it, long term stocks) to more risky funds that traded shit around constantly.

it all seemed like gambling to me so i handed it over to my spouse and promptly stopped caring.

[–] lemmy_user_838586@lemmy.ml 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

this is such a bad take. 'Oh yeah.. back when I cared about this stuff, I actually didn't care, I stuck my head in the sand and passed off the obligation and responsibility to someone else.'

[–] originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com -2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

my point was, i had a piece of information which i gave, and then i bowed out with what could be a temporally relevant time frame

but you read what you want to read, its cool.