"I'm too chicken to admit to my husband that I screwed up my retirement savings."

If she has reason to fear her husband, that's one scary relationship. If she fears abuse of any kind, she needs to get out.

If she fears having made a mistake (which I don't think she did, she's just temporarily fucked financially like most people), that's a different issue entirely and she needs to figure out why she freaks out over the perception that she made a mistake. I wonder whether it's linked to fear of her husband or whether it goes a lot farther back than her married years.

If she fears having no money in retirement, then she needs to educate herself on how investing in stocks works. Plus, she said that she is at least 25 years away from retirement.

Sounds like the LW has more anxiety issues and more marital issues than financial ones.

Putting your money in CDs with 25 years to retirement is very foolish. Your stocks will come back in a few years and then keep on growing. Those CDs are guaranteed to not do much of anything ever. Do the calculations - money put in CDs will not grow sufficiently to provide a comfortable retirement. Your money in the stock marker will, assuming that you are doing things well. This stock market drop is actually a good thing on your timeline - it will give you a chance to buy low.

Stay the course. Keep plowing money in. You are doing the right thing. Your husband is not. Really.

1. Well, at least we still have Britney and Dancing With the Stars.

2. I guess it's time for us to start ANOTHER world war

3. Who's got the pitchforks?

I'm always terrified to open my bills. It's like getting yelled at to give them money I don't have!

I wait until the very last minute, then go online and make the biggest payment I can while keeping it small enough that I can pay every bill a few dollars! It's kinda like how I would plug my ears and sing so I don't hear my parents... when I was 3.

I never had stocks, but credit companies seem to have stopped caring about payment plans, and my job sure doesn't pay appropriate wages anymore!

I know what it's like to shudder in fear at the mail. Thanks for making me laugh at myself, Cary!

anyone could have seen this market coming. i pulled my money out of the market in june and it is making 6% or more until i decide things have bottomed out and it's time to get back in. obviously her husband saw it coming too. there is nothing she can do about it except to keep putting money into the market and try to pay a little closer attention to what's going on in the world. or, she could ask her husband to help her manage her money since he seems to be a little more on the ball.

and peddle ass. In hard times people still drink drug and screw.

is this whole thing, with her scared to admit to her guy that she is not doing as well with her investments, a POWER and CONTROL thing?

I bet if the table were turned and HE was the one who had screwed up and she was the one who had made out by being in CDs, he would have felt like the chump and she would have probably forgiven him, but deep down she would probably glower that it was her superior female instincts that led her to this situation. She probably also would trust him less in the future on similar judgment calls.

I bet if she reports to her husband the situation, he will shrug it off, the markets ARE doing bad in case you haven't seen the papers. I also bet, he will NOT denigrate her in the future about her prowess.

Just calling out the potential gender dynamics at work here.

you wrote:

"1. Well, at least we still have Britney and Dancing With the Stars.

2. I guess it's time for us to start ANOTHER world war

3. Who's got the pitchforks?"

I deliberately avoided number 2 because, well, they can start all the wars they want but it's not going to do anything for Main Street's economy. 1941 was a long long ago in a very different land where ordinary people could be trained to build B-17 bombers in no time flat. More war will bankrupt us further. We really cant afford the current entanglements of empire anyway.

As to 1 and 3, well, you nailed it. But the American people have a long way to go before anyone starts thinking of pitchforks. Perhaps not until 50 million are out of work and we have real hunger. But Obama won't allow that to happen, right.

As for most of the environmental factors, many scientists think its too late anyway. Financially it may already be too late.

I'm still waiting for anyone to explain how Wall Street 'comes back' in our lifetime, if ever given the circumstances I've laid out.

I guess I would tell the LW not to sweat it either. Easy come, easy go and at the rate we're going most of us are going to be in the same boat sooner or later. I had only a modest IRA left before the crash and cashed it out in August before it tanked. I run a small indy used bookstore that loses money (but I live simply) so the tax hit will be a wash being a sole proprietorship.

IF my mother had unloaded all her holdings she could have retired the $40,000 outstanding in a home equity loan the bank closed out AND paid off all her credit card and consumer debt, have $15,000 cash after taxes and be DEBT FREE and still getting $4,000 a month in state teacher's retirement. Some things seem simple to me.

And I have a cash reserve now for the unforeseen.

people still need diapers and food and cars.

WHICH companies will survive is a slightly different question. Toyota? You can bet it will likely be around. GM? Well, I kind of doubt it, at least not without a lot of further pain, since they seem married to old ways.

The US is in a strong position because we lead the planet in innovative transnational companies, so far. These companies do not cover our nation's tax burden like they might, this is an ongoing issue.

Also, just WHO will benefit from these companies coming back in the coming years and decades? Whoever has invested money into them.