I'm almost 52 years old, and I've watched my investments decline by almost half over the last 14 months (down around 400k). I have one child in private grade school and another in an Archdiocesan high school. The one in HS is 21 months from going to college. November has been the worst month my company has had in the 7 years I've been there. I have this impending sense of doom almost daily (unless I drink). I've never been so scared.
Yet I realize my debt on my home is less than 35k, my wife has a job that provides half our income (and there's very little chance that her job is at risk). Unless my company goes belly up (which is a definite possibility), I have a job. I still have almost $500k in 401(k)'s and mutual funds.
So, I'm between C and D. On one hand I know we'd get through it, on the other hand I'm watching my retirement disappear and I have the feeling that if I lose my job, I may never get another. I've never had the feeling of anxiety that I have right now.
I know I'm over-reacting, I have trouble sleeping, but I can't seem to get past it.
That is brutal. Am I right to assume that you were 100% invested in equities in your retirement account (rather than a mix of stocks, bonds, and cash)? Also, does that amount represent losses on just your retirement account or the combined losses on both your and your wife's retirement account?
I've been too afraid to look at my retirement account balance, although I've been in a large cash position for quite some time now and know that it can only go so low. Where my wife and I lost most of our net worth is probably in our home value. Based on average declines here in Nor Cal, we've probably lost the equivalent of our remaining principal balance in equity. IOW, had we sold the house a year and a half ago, moved to Kansas or Greenland or Nunavut, moved back today, and bought an equivalent house, we'd own it outright.
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