My 401k

[Norbert]

I started tracking it about every week since last Thanksgiving. My 401k as of Wednesday morning has increased by 25% in that time.

If the economy is in the dumper 401K is a bad barometer then.

[Mark.b2]

1. My 401k is my main barometer...

I’m +19% ytd, but I’m 76% in my company stock. Not very diverse I know, but it’s been good to me. I’m soon going to transition to conservative instruments.

The last 6 years have been quite good to me retirement plan-wise. Prior to that, it was a source of real angst.

[Fiendish Thingy]

5. Yikes! You need to diversify!

76% in one asset class, let alone one particular stock, is extremely risky…

[brooklynite]

6. We attempt to rebalance periodically....and then my Apple stock goes up again.

We’ve been giving it away to charities, but the value seems to remain constant.

[Mark.b2]

7. Don't disagree but...

My company stock started out less than 20% of my portfolio. Then about 8 years ago, the price almost quadrupled. I’m slowly divesting but the price keeps going up so I don’t get in a hurry to sell.

My company also requires I own a certain amount of company stock so that factors in, too.

[Fiendish Thingy]

8. I would only hold the absolute minimum required

I’m guessing this is a tech stock, which tend to be quite sensitive to market volatility.

Better to make a steady 10%, than gain 20-30% one year to lose it the next.

But that’s just me.

[underpants]

2. I went and check mine

7.7% but that’s on my employer match.
My pension has me at $1,700 per month if I retire in 11 years which is the plan.

[progree]

3. I took a look at the S&P 500 index fund over the last 1 year and last 2 years

Vanguard's VFIAX - S&P 500 index fund (includes dividends and net of expenses)
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/VFIAX/history?p=VFIAX
11/15/21: 422.65
11/15/22: 365.78
11/15/23: 416.21 (only 1.5% below the 2 years ago level)

It's my bond funds that have really been hurt more, for example
Vanguard's VICSX - Intermediate-Term Corporate Bond Index fund
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/VICSX/history?p=VICSX
11/15/21: 24.00
11/15/22: 20.58
11/15/23: 20.70

In both cases using the Adjusted Close - which adjusts the price for the distributions (i.e. dividends and interest and any cap gains distributions)

CPI: https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUSR0000SA0
The latest data is October 2023. If the CPI is flat from October to November (as it was from September to October), then

November 2021: 278.711
November 2022: 298.598
November 2023: 307.619 (if same as October)

So in the last year the CPI has increased 3.0%
In the last 2 years the CPI has increased 10.4%
Thus eroding the purchasing power of my nest egg.

Disclosure: actually the S&P 500 index fund and the corporate bond fund aren't the entirety of my nest egg, but rather just a couple of my larger representative holdings. It would be too much work to look up my various statements and adjust them for deposits and withdrawals and taxes and so on.

I'm delighted to see the big improvement in the S&P 500 over the last year, I'm glad that my bond fund is actually up some over the past year (whew!), and the considerable taming of inflation to near the 2% goal level.

[Fiendish Thingy]

4. Thanks Bidenomics!

S&P 500 is up 17% for 2023 and projections are for the rally to continue into 2024!