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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[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 2 points 9 months ago

Most people aren't good at that

Most professional investors aren't either. Something like 70% of professionally managed funds fail to beat their index over a 10 year period, and the number goes down from there. And these aren't idiots, they have a lot of education and professional experience, yet they still fail.

If timing the market worked consistently, everyone would do it. And if everyone did it, that means nobody times the market (stocks go up and down based on supply and demand, not some magic, hidden force). It's highly unlikely that any individual will consistently win by trying to time the market.