Depressing, but I'm luckier than some

[ellid]

My retirement account lost 4% this quarter, which sucks...but compared to a friend whose 401(k) lost over 30% in the same period, I'm sitting pretty. Even better, I have a GMIB in place so when I do retire (ha!) I'll at least get my investment back.

Best of all, I'm now informing (and terrifying) myself by reading Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine, a brilliant and devastating indictment of Milton Friedman and the Chicago School of Economics. It really makes me want to crawl into a cave and pull a rock over the door for a couple of years....

Comments

[tx-cronopio.livejournal.com]

Mine only went down about 6%, hooray!

Please take Naomi Klein with a grain of salt -- she stretches a lot of facts.

[ellid.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm sure - can you recommend something more balanced for when I've finished Shock Doctrine? Most of the neocon economic books leave me incoherent with rage so it would be nice to find something that was middle of the road.

[tena524.livejournal.com]

When I spoke to my financial advisor last, he said that the market overall was down 23%. If you were only down 4%, you're doing damn well.

[ellid.livejournal.com]

Mass Mutual is pretty conservative and had almost no investments in odd securities, subprime mortgages, etc. I'll never get rich with them handling my money but there's a good chance I'll still *have* money at the end of it, which is more than can be said for a lot of other places.

[tena524.livejournal.com]

Of course, my Mom is raving about what a great buying opportunity this is... and she's right.