<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Palak -<div><br></div><div>One could fill books with everything I don't know about finances (ummmm.... wait they have they're called "finance books"). But my fervent hope is that 401Ks are designed to be valuable if you ignore short term fluctuations in value - in the long run they are always worth the investment because over decades the stock market is always up.</div><div><br></div><div>I this means I agree with John McCain that the "fundamentals of our economy are strong" :-)</div><div><br></div><div>with my head in the sand....</div><div>'deep</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br><div><div>On Oct 20, 2008, at 1:25 PM, mike kosim wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div>As far as I know, the 401K is a tax designation for a block of money. A lot of places who manage your block of tax-free money allow you to take it out of stock and leave it in cash inside that account so that it is still in the 401K, but he won't have it in stock (he'll have it in cash). <br>He should call up the 401K managers to check if he can do this. Depending on his work, they may have someone internally who fields these kinds of questions or someone that is part of an outside agency that is contracted by his work. Either way, I think there is a solution where he can 1. not pay the tax hit AND 2. get it out of the stock he has. <br>my amateur opinion only.<br>mike<br><br>palak joshi wrote:<br><blockquote type="cite">dear social,<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">so a friend of mine had about 13,000$ in his 401k plan. He got a letter yesterday saying he is on -12.8% and has lost about 3000$. He kind of lost 2000$ in one week. This way he will lose all his money. He cannot NOT INVEST his money in an 401K right? Can anyone tell me if its wise to take the money out, pay the penalty in taxes and put it in a safe savings account? I guess people who have more money can wait for the economy to get better but with small amounts its not worth taking the risk right?<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">thank you.<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">palak.<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">------------------------------------------------------------------------<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">_______________________________________________<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Social mailing list<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><a href="mailto:Social@lists.deeptrouble.com">Social@lists.deeptrouble.com</a><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><a href="http://lists.deeptrouble.com/listinfo.cgi/social-deeptrouble.com">http://lists.deeptrouble.com/listinfo.cgi/social-deeptrouble.com</a><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"> <br></blockquote><br>_______________________________________________<br>Social mailing list<br><a href="mailto:Social@lists.deeptrouble.com">Social@lists.deeptrouble.com</a><br>http://lists.deeptrouble.com/listinfo.cgi/social-deeptrouble.com<br></div></blockquote></div><br><div apple-content-edited="true"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><br></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">----------------------------------</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">Amandeep Jawa</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">----------------------------------</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">deep AT deeptrouble DOT com</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">937 Valencia St.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">San Francisco, CA 94110-2320</font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">personal: <a href="http://www.deeptrouble.com">http://www.deeptrouble.com</a></font></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">political: <a href="http://www.sflcv.org">http://www.sflcv.org</a></font></p><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></span></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"> </div><br></div></body></html>