My 401k Comeback

Up until the Fall of 2008, my bride and I were quite pleased that our hard work and focus on our 401k retirement accounts had paid off. Then came the global economic downturn and we, like too many of our fellow citizens, found our 401k had turned in to a “200.5k” since it was down about 50%!

I’m ashamed to admit I strongly considered panic selling when I watched my Apple (AAPL) holdings — comprising far too much of my portfolio since I’d worked at Apple in the 1990’s and amassed a nice chunk of the (then) relatively cheap stock — had plummeted from $200-ish a share to a low of just over $85 on Christmas Eve. My bride has a strong AAPL position too and I just dug in my heels and absolutely refused to bet on our economy sliding in to another Great Depression and didn’t sell.  

Thank God I didn’t. Not only has it rebounded nicely, Apple has a $210 price target on it. I hold out hope that we can be self-reliant in our old age since it’s unlikely we, at the tail end of the 77 million strong baby boom generation, will enjoy any governmental help in the form of social security and Medicare in a meaningful way (and hopefully our hard work won’t be horribly taxed when we start to cash out our 401k…but I’m betting it will).

(Note: This is an update since my buddy Phil noticed I’d made an error on the graphic).