How old are you? You do not say. Which is absolutely maddening given that that, and only that, determines whether the big dip is a problem. The best advice for dealing with 401K losses is simply not to look. The damage is done. There not much to be done now. Just keep plowing money into the account and make sure you are in a variety of index funds so that your progress, at minimum, tracks that of the market as a whole, which always, always goes up over time.

So, when the stock market rallies and in twelve years your stocks are worth more than your husband's CDs are you going to lord it over him? Lecture him on his bad choices? Please.

If you plan for this money to support you both, you might try planning together a diversified portfolio that includes several basic types of investment: bond funds, index funds, T-bills, and possibly real estate. Skip the CDs except for money you want to have available to spend in the relatively short term. No long term CDs. And don't buy individual stocks unless you are willing to spend a lot more time studying investments than most people want to. Likewise don't get any managed mutual funds that have lots of fees and seldom beat the market.

~

Finances are like fascist to me.

Whatever I make, lawyers steal.

They make poor folk go`honk!

A bankers a crooked foul hoot.

Toot. Love a preschooler goof.

Love. Find secret ticklish area.

Hmm. No "outward restraint"?

Oy! No allow a degrade flunk,

sap energy and self-respects.

You were clear to me. Thanks.

C.T. counsel. no melodramas.

Stocks go down. Socks stinky.

Bakers rob you of holy socks.

Lawyers eat cats sand litters.

Bankers chew scat on bagels.

Love a fat cats Stock Broker?

Ok, so the market went down. Run the numbers for the amount that your stocks "lost" comparing the statements from 4-5 months ago to the most recent. Then compare that to how much the Dow Jones or Standard and Poors has lost between those dates. If you find that your investments didn't lose as much as the market, they are pretty good investments.

You say you won't need the money for 25 years. Well, by that times, things will have changed. Stocks may split, value will be added. Dividends will be removed in the short term from some companies as they need to recover, and maybe added later when they recover. A good financial advisor may help you understand all this, as well as figure out how to get out of the bad stocks.

And I put "lost" in quotes because you haven't lost any money until you sell.

And meanwhile, as the first letter said, the CD interest rate will be changing.

Don't let the emotions of a down market push you out at a low, especially since you have no need for the money at this point.

What beautiful advice, Cary and I second it wholeheartedly.

What's more, markets fluctuate. This is a big dip, but in the next 25 years there are bound to be big rises.

I can't add much to Cary's advice today—I think he explains the best way to begin tackling this painful problem. I hope that you and your husband are good allies in all things, and that you will be able to work together, with a good advisor, to re-build a financial foundation for yourselves.

What I would like to say here is that over the past year or so, I have made organizing my personal finances (spending, saving, credit card debt, etc.) made number one priority. Obession, actually. Why? Because for the first 20 years of my working/student/working/student career my finances and personal debt management skills have been absolutely atrocious. A total embarrassment.

I don't know anything about stocks or investments (total ignorance, but I'm now starting to learn) but I know how terrifying it can be to see those bills or credit card statements lying there . . . ominously . . . and knowing that they don't go away until I deal with them.

So I started to deal with it baby-step by baby-step. I started reading good introductory books like "The Weathy Barber" "Smart Women Finish Rich" "Dept is Slavery" and the everything by Suze Orman. All have good advice for the most part, especially for someone like me who needed serious help with ALL the basics.

The book that has helped me the MOST, however, is "Your Money or Your Life" (by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin) — which matches my personal beliefs in simplicity. It's not for everyone, and it takes a number of months to start to "get" their program, which is highly detailed, but I have found it to be very insightful. It's not easy and but it is worth it once you get into the swing of it.

The goal is to track not only your spending and saving, but also the "life hours" you have to exchange for any money you earn. THIS, more than my own bad habits, was the REAL shock. Let's just say it's more than 40 hours per week for that little ol' paycheck.

The only caveat I would note about it (and which I was sceptical about last year BUT FULLY APPRECIATE NOW is that, unlike to other books I just mentioned, this book does not recommend the stock market AT ALL—their approach is low-expense, debt-free living (scrimping and saving) with an emphasis on bonds and other absoultely risk-free "investing."

So, I don't know if that kind of philosophical approach will help with your immediate situation, but you might find that it gives you a different perspective on what everyone is going through right now.

Be honest, be courageous, and be there for each other.

Best wishes to you and your husband.

You have 25 years to retirement??? Think of it this way: if the market and your investments do not rebound in 25 years and produce reasonable returns, then you won't need to worry about retirement accounts because it will mean that civilization as we know it will have ended. Your only worry will be making sure that your cave and tribe are secure from invading hordes.

Now if you were 60 and planned to retire after the first of the year, I would probably advise you to panic big time.