rnoldh
Stylish Dinosaur
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2006
- Messages
- 16,976
- Reaction score
- 3,135
I've worked for many home builders and consequently had a few 401Ks.
I thought I had rolled everything into an IRA, but it turns out I missed one.
The statements for that specific 401K are all electronic and were being Emailed to an address I don't check.
Anyway I just realized that I had it. I looked over the past statements and saw that I had contributed about $5100 ( I wasn't there long and it was a while ago ).
It's now worth about $2,800! Since, I'm 59 & 1/2, I won't have to pay a 10% penalty on top of normal taxes, so I just told them to close it out and send me the money ( which I can use these days ).
I like to think that I would have pulled the $5,100 out of the market ( it was all in mutual funds ), and lessened the $2,300 loss. But that's easy to say after the fact.
But what got me annoyed was when I was talking to a buddy and describing the situation. He said the classic, "It's only on paper anyway!". My reaction is Bullshit. If that specific account was worth $5,100 at one point then I lost $2,300 in actual "cash losses". Not in paper!
How do the rest of you feel about the classic, "It's only on paper?" thoughts.
BTW: Though I'm behind on most everything ( including the IRA ), it's not nearly as much % wise as the example above.
I thought I had rolled everything into an IRA, but it turns out I missed one.
The statements for that specific 401K are all electronic and were being Emailed to an address I don't check.
Anyway I just realized that I had it. I looked over the past statements and saw that I had contributed about $5100 ( I wasn't there long and it was a while ago ).
It's now worth about $2,800! Since, I'm 59 & 1/2, I won't have to pay a 10% penalty on top of normal taxes, so I just told them to close it out and send me the money ( which I can use these days ).
I like to think that I would have pulled the $5,100 out of the market ( it was all in mutual funds ), and lessened the $2,300 loss. But that's easy to say after the fact.
But what got me annoyed was when I was talking to a buddy and describing the situation. He said the classic, "It's only on paper anyway!". My reaction is Bullshit. If that specific account was worth $5,100 at one point then I lost $2,300 in actual "cash losses". Not in paper!
How do the rest of you feel about the classic, "It's only on paper?" thoughts.
BTW: Though I'm behind on most everything ( including the IRA ), it's not nearly as much % wise as the example above.