Trivia: How many people lost money in the stock market last year?

[IdaBriggs]

Or had their 401K's lose value, or whatever? I've heard the "it always makes money over the long term" stuff (and actually own mutual funds), but let's get real -- TONS of people LOSE money in the market -- let's start tossing those numbers out there in the discussions, hmmm?

For example, "investing in the stock market is lovely, except for the 35 million Americans who reported losses on their investments last year based on their tax returns." (Number made up, because I have no clue as to where to begin looking for it....)

[DODI]

1. Our 401K went down -- Mom's made up for her MRD plus some.

I guess we should invest in the funds she has.

[amazona]

2. my individual stocks did poorly

I don't want to talk about it.

I'm convinced the S&P is not calculated correctly. No way this is the same 10,500 DOW that I had under Clinton. It just makes me want to weep.

On Edit-- the only bright note was finally being able to dump DIS at a profit when stupid Comcast made a bid for their worthless *^&%$.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

[Egalitariat]

3. Equity investing has to be analyzed over the long term

It's hard to find an S&P portfolio that was a bad investment given a time horizon over 10 years. If you look at just a couple of years, there are several 1-2 year runs where it was a bad idea. But nobody has lost money in an S&P 500 portfolio over a long number of years.

There is nobody who is of retirement age today that would have netted less return than SS in an S&P500 index. Period.

It's true that SS is a poor performing investment -- if you think of it as a retirement plan. But SS is not a retirement plan; it's an insurance plan.

This isn't an argument against SS, by the way, I'm just saying that over long horizons a balanced equity portfolio is better than any other investment scheme. Period.

If you can find a serious economist to argue that, I'll kiss your feet.

[Capn Sunshine]

7. But bear in mind there have been extended periods of flatness.

What you're talking about is the equity markets tendency to cherry pick favorable periods or extend the frame long enmough to where the perrcentage gain belies the diminished value of the money fude to inflation.

After 1929's high of 381.17 , it took TWENTY FIVE YEARS just to return to that level, in 1954. 25 years to break even.

In the 70's between 1970 and 1979, the Dow Jones industrial average gained just 4.8 percent, a pretty miserable performance. Adjust that for the runaway inflation of the period, and things look even worse.

That sluggish decade was in fact part of a longer, 16-year, flat stretch, running from 1966 to 1982

Just some food for thought about what we face; many , including myself see a similarity of today markets to the 70's.

Just some ffod for thought hwne they trot out the SS argument about returns.

[KoKo]

4. It was a year for "Traders" and "Stock Pickers." I don't think most folks

did well at all. If your 401-K is limited and you don't have time to sit reading all day or following what CNBC says is "HOT" then how the hell can one make any money.

Our DU Market Watch site in "LBN" Forum is good. But, even then one has to read and read and read.

Bush is full of it. Only the big guys/gals with the big bucks are making anything and they have managers who can do it for them in risky ventures.

Otherwise the market sucks unless you got into the "Google IPO." and there again...only the "insiders" got that one to make some money.

[yellowdogintexas]

5. mine went down 1st 2 quarters, went up some 3rd quarter

and took a good jump the 4th quarter. Enough to make up for the losses earlier in the year.

I was pleased. This is an old one that I have not rolled over and it performed so well in the 90's that I have actually not ever come close to losing any of my own money or the interest it earned, or the money my employer contributed..just some of the earnings on the employer contributions, if that makes any sense.

[elifino]

6. I am one of the lucky ones

I work for a company which uses The Principal Financial Group to manage
our 401K, we have a choice of 18 different funds that range from interest only to high risk. I choose to invest 20% in each of 5 funds ranging from interest only to moderate risk. The management fee is quite low and
daily moves are allowed on most funds. I have always invested before tax money and have an average return of 19%. This is not to say everyone did this well, some in fact lost quite a large sum of their retirement fund.
I just retired after 45 years of service and am quite happy that I was able to supplement my SS with a 401K.
Unless the fed will allow before tax money to be used for the personal accounts I don't think it will work as well as the * administration predicts.

[bobbieinok]

8. was it 87 Bloody Monday when stock market lost nearly 500 points???

many friends with money in the stock market part of TIAA/CREf lost a lot of retirement money then

[mistertrickster]

9. I did--my mutual funds are just treading water or down. I really haven't

made any money in the market since Bush ascended the throne.

[Yupster]

10. You shouldn't have lost money in 2004

The overwhelming number of mutual funds made money last year.

If you lost money in mutual funds last year, you need to have a close look at them. Ask your broker to see a Thomson Report on them.

I'm a stockbroker and right now I'm going to all my clients giving them a report card on how their mutual funds did for the year. I don't think there's been a single one my clients are using that went down.

There's one stock fund that was up 2.3 % is the lowest I can think of.

Most of the Growth and Income Funds were up in the 7- 12 % range. Value Stock Funds were in the 12 - 16 % range. Growth Funds were all over the place from 25 % to 3 %. Foreign funds were mostly up strongly.

Honestly, if you had a mix of mutual funds that actually lost money last year, then something went seriously wrong.

Individual stocks are a different ballgame entirely. Some went broke. Some went up 500 %.

[Blue_In_AK]

11. We did okay last year...

....but it sucked before that. New stockbroker knows what he's doing.