What are folks doing out there with their Fidelity 401k's , I was looking into CASH options like (SHV ETf ) but nothing like that exists. I'm tired of seeing my 401K evaporate.. What allocation strategies are you guys using to STEM the bleeding.. Also please spare me the "time the market wisdom" I already lost 30% would rather miss out on an upward 30% than another 20% drop.. Looks like there's a little reprieve before the next drop
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If you move your money you've "locked in" your losses.
Review these links from Fidelity Workshops:
https://www.fidelity.com/learning-center/live-PI
https://www.fidelity.com/bin-public/060_www_fidelity_com/documents/learning-center/033120_Weekly-Market-Insights.pdf
Moved my 850K to AT&T Stable Value Fund when all this virus started. I have not lost anything. I'm now thinking about 10% back into High Risk and then another 10% and another 10% as the weeks go on. I don't trust advisors.....They say leave it in a mix of High, Med, Low but they are not the one loosing large %. I plan to ride the growth train when this all goes up again.
"Someone already mentioned it. ATT Stable Value. It almost like IRA cash. It will not earn very much; however, it won't drop very much either (if at all). After the market starts to trend back up, move it back to where you have it now. "
Assuming your current allocations incurred 20-30% loss along with the rest of the market in 1Q....you would be completely foolish to change that around now into something more "stable", and then move back to where you were AFTER the market rebounds. You'll just be locking in your losses as of today and missing out on any recovery growth. If you're looking to reallocate to be more conservative, wait until things recover.
Lots of bad information here.
What to do now with your balance is a very personal decision and since I don't know how far you are from retirement or other personal financial details you might want to discuss your situation with a number of individuals before making your decision. My guess is that most advisors will tell you that if you are still 5+ years away from retirement you may want to ride it out since the market is very likely going to eventually stabilize and then begin to increase again.
What I can recommend is that going forward you should have a solid portion of your ongoing contributions in fixed income. As mentioned a number of times the best option is probably the AT&T Stable Value fund (I do have one issue with that fund mentioned below). One broad-brush allocation method is to take your age and subtract it from 100. That is the percent you should have in the stock market. The remainder goes into fixed income. For example if you are 60 your portfolio mix would be 40% equities and 60% fixed income. This could at least be applied to your ongoing contributions.
I've been retired for about five years and a substantial portion of my 401k is in the Stable Value fund and as the name implies it generates a modest but consistent return with very little downside. The one issue I do have with the fund is that it is very opaque. The fine print says it invests in a number of different types of securities including risk-free treasuries but does not provide the current portfolio mix some of which is debt issued by insurance companies and some being mortgage-backed securities. It is managed in-house by AT&T and you have to hope the boys in Dallas know what they are doing.
Another option (which I also use) is to move a portion of your portfolio (up to 50%) out of the 401k into a brokerage account managed by Fidelity that is also tax-deferred. Once there you can by treasury mutual funds and/or FDIC insured CDs that are completely risk-free and/or risk assets such as ETFs and Mutual Funds. Best of Luck!!!
Wow, you need serious help. You never sell at the bottom. That’s how you lose. You need to do a lot of reading, and never listen to yourself. You don’t know enough to manage your own finances.
Best advice I can give you is to leave it alone.
Leave it alone. In 2007 I had over $400K in my Fidelity account. In 2008 It dropped to about $200K. By the time I retired ten years later ,it was just under $1 million. Had I moved it to the stable fund in 2008, It would have been worth half that amount.
I moved mine into bonds last year
What goes up must come down and with lay-off and getting closer to retirement I cannot ride out another downturn
But you definitely should get a advisor
My crystal ball is broke
C 19 is bouncing
Someone already mentioned it. ATT Stable Value. It almost like IRA cash. It will not earn very much; however, it won't drop very much either (if at all). After the market starts to trend back up, move it back to where you have it now.
You should buy a mattress, withdraw money and stuff mattress with the money.
Most of the financial planning community will tell you to stay the course (unless you are improperly allocated for your time horizon). It has been shown that people who cash out and make some decision later to change course again...….miss out on the typical market rallies that always occur after a market correction/depression/crash, etc..
The question you should ask yourself, is WHEN would you get back in the market if you got out of equities? Nobody has that crystal ball who can answer that question.
You should also ALWAYS be in the market with your portfolio to some degree or percentage of your portfolio...….this is not my opinion, just standard practice, regardless of Age or Time Horizon.
A conservative approach would be maybe the typical 60% Stock / 40% Bonds allocation.
The losses this spring into early summer may seem extreme but expected to be short term with some expectation of turning around into the last half of the year.
If you are uncomfortable with managing your own 401K, then as stated by others...….speak to a financial professional to review your current situation.
Lot of folks think like you do; it's ignorant.
Manage your household as follows and it will work out well for you. 1) Zero debt. 2) Emergency Fund. 3) Mutual Funds. 4) Proper Asset Allocation. 5) Money invested stock market should not be required for living within the next 4 or 5 years. 6) Dollar cost average. 7) You cannot time the market. 8) The market will periodically drop 30 to 50%. Oh well. 9) You are not so dumb that you sell when the market drops. Correct? 10) Make good tax decisions (Roth makes sense for a lot of folks; avoid IRA, 401K, and pension c-appy decisions;...), 11) Can't go wrong with Dave Ramsey and Warren Buffett.
When I lost $20K I called my son at Fidelity. He manages two locations in South Florida. I got the “corporate “ response. There is volatility in the market. Everything will be okay. Days later I lost $40K and tried to reach someone else at Fidelity. I was told that I will receive a response in 5 business days. So, I shared this information with my son and asked him what kind of fiduciary, is Fidelity. Days later when I lost 27% of my retirement assets, I called a friend who retired from AT&T and asked for some help. He introduced me to his CFA and to make a sad story happy, in two weeks the CFA recovered 50% of the loss that I suffered. He is a true fiduciary.
When in doubt, do nothing. I am not sure how far away you are from retirement, but that is likely your best bet. I’m 50 and I am not reallocating anything, as I didn’t in 2008-2009. I might be more concerned if retirement was imminent.
Qualified financial professionals make their living through commissions. The more they churn the more they earn. Most people don't get the timing of the market correct. I faced your dilemma of not having a suitable or a limited investment option in my 401K. ATT with a lot of debt, stocks which have crashed, bonds to companies which may go bankrupt, funds investing in derivatives.
Fidelity rolled over my 401K to a ROTH IRA for the non-taxable portion and a traditional IRA for the taxable part of my 401K. I kept some of my ATT stock in my 401K. It was earning a high rate of return. But then you are responsible then on investing it safely. You could get an advisor to help with that.
AT&T Stable Value Fund in the 401K earns about 2.5% per year.
It has never gone down in value for the several years that it has been around.
Quite possibly the worst thing you could do for your financial well being is coming to a site called The Layoff expecting to find sound financial advice.
Do yourself a favor and speak to a qualified financial professional for advice about your financial well being.