How much did retirement accounts lose today?

This is such a mess. It would be funny if it wasn't so scary. Imagine how we must look to the rest of the world.

Not to worry; the republicans will continue to blame Clinton (he's been gone for almost eight years) for all the current mess.

How about percentage loss by points and not just number of points?

Both percentage or point loss will be acceptable.

As a matter of fact, I'll provide percentage loss of our funds after about 4PM when they become available.

People can provide YTD, month-to-month, or from yesterday's closing.

I am probably no worse off than two months ago. Had the 401k in money market only, and rolled it over to IRA. Since American Funds offered several MMKT funds, with only one available to 401k plans, I'm assuming that fund was not really huge into Lehman paper.

Kind of afraid to check, though. Short term paper should be doing really well, unless its into something in danger of default. Hey, money has to be somewhere, and I was only joking about holding dollar bills for the paper content.

But to strictly answer the question, no, I don't know how much I lost, or if I lost anything.

I'm checking around, but I haven't been able to find any numbers just yet.

I consider it a great deal better for my mental health if I don't look.

I don't know what you are talking about re the specific things you mention...but my super is in the market, and I assume I am losing a heap daily right now.

roger, Just as a warning; most MM funds have $1 value for each share, but that's changed from some with losses. Better take a look; they're not allcreated equal.

3rd quarter financial statements come out after close-of-business tomorrow. I haven't decided yet whether to open them when they arrive later next week.

The market lost over one trillion dollars in value. It seems most people lost about eight percent today.

Here's the year-to-date results of the stock market at close today:
DOW -22%, Nasdaq -25%, and S&P -25%

What our funds lost:
YTD wife's -5.6%
YTD mine -10.5%

All our funds combined adds back our spending:
The reason I add back our spending is to reflect "actual" drop in our funds/cash position.
We had major renovations on our home, and I've taken or paid for five trips in 2008.
YTD combined -6.34%

I was talking to a guy on another forum who says he's lost 14% (YTD), and 5.5% last month (that was before this latest fall).

Said he wishes he could pull it all out and stuff his mattress with it. Can't say I blame him!

The good news is that the September month-end fund balances won't look so bad for this year, but we still have October, November, and Decemeber, and the whole of 2009 to live through more ups and downs.

May I ask you a question, Tak? There is someone on A2K who will periodically (not often) ask me a personal finance question (e-mail). The reason why is too complicated to go into. I respond, but always with the disclaimer that I am not and do not want to be responsible for dispensing advice. The question today went something like this: "I have an IRA run by (bank). How do I know how much it is worth?"
I don't have an IRA or a 401-K, but I am thinking that you probably get a quarterly statement that might look like this:
Beginning Balance (market value)
+ Interest/Dividends earned
- Withdrawals
+/- Increase/(Decrease) in market value
= Ending Balance.

Am I close? And are withdrawals tax exempt was the other question.
Thank you.
My advice, by the way, was try not to panic. Let things settle out.

Any withdrawal from an IRA or 401k is taxable whether it lost value or not, because it was funded through pre-tax dollars.

Depending on how much "other" income one has, taxes may even impact social security benefits. When my wife worked, 80% of my social security was taxable income. The IRS gets their share coming and going...

What many forget is that at age 70.5, (first April after reaching it) IRA and 401K's must be withdrawn at a given formula provided by the IRS. Many forget, and end up paying penalty and interest.

From the high last year, my total invested retirement funds are down 22%.

Even with continued investments, I am below what I had 2 years ago.

My wife's funds hardly budged today after the 485 point increase. Mine increased a few thousand, but they're just paper ups and downs.

You motivated me, CI. It's still intact, but the only the dividend was remarkable for it's lack of size. I'm expecting at least a temporary spike for the forth quarter, but who knows.