The White House has said that we have a "robust" recovery and many Obamatons have cited the stock market and 401Ks as proof of that. Is that true? Not really. The stock market has been artificially inflated with taxpayer money and a bubble has formed. 401Ks??? Let me lay it out for you...
I'm going to use percentages because you don't need to know how much I have. Two weeks before the 2008 bust I moved my money around in my 401K. My losses were 17% instead of the 30% + by many people. This should demonstrate that I keep track of my money and make some good choices regarding it. Anyway, my 401K recovered like so many other people. I had a milestone set up which I came within less than 1% of reaching...three years early I might add. I was 34% ahead of my actual deposits. What happened is what is important. That point was reached almost three months ago and since then I have been up and down but have never reached that illusive milestone. My balance has remained almost the same as it was three months ago. I deposit nearly 9% of my salary every week and I'm stalled. I checked my elections (I have 11 currently) and all but one were making money this last quarter. If it were not for my weekly infusions of cash, my portfolio would be going down! In fact, by my calculation three months ago I was at 34% above my contributions but now I'm at 23%. I'm still in the black but I'm losing economic latitude. I'm sure the same thing is happening around the country but maybe people just don't understand that holding steady is not good when your dropping money into your account every payday. The economy is stalled and GDP shrank last quarter. I have yet to hear anything really amazing about this quarter so can expect another minus zero result (and the start of an offical recession)?