I’ve had a few people in my life tell me that they lost X % of their 401k during the (insert financial crisis).
Recently when a friend told me they lost 50% of their 401k in the 2008 time, I said: “Well you didn’t really lose anything, because you still had the stocks, and even though they were worth less, you still had the same number of stocks, so you could have waited it out?”
To which my friend replied: “That would be true if the person managing my 401k didn’t sell”.
I hadn’t actually thought about that. I mean personally most of my funds are in age based target funds, but those funds are also managed by someone, right? So is there a way to prevent someone from selling your stocks if the economy tanks? I have a pretty long retirement horizon (still in my 30s) so I can weather the storm for a bit.
Edit: Thank you everyone for the insightful answers. This really helps to clear things up
It’s possible OP’s friend paid a crappy advisor to manage it and they messed it up.
In a 401k one generally does not have a choice in management.
You may have a choice in only a few funds…. So yeah if your holdings were sold then yeah that sucks and hurts. Hence I agree with the top comment IF YOU CAN index funds…
Usually a 401k will have two options: managed and self-directed. With managed, usually you pay some amount and the custodian selects investments. With self-directed, you pick the funds you invest in.
Usually there are passively managed funds in a 401k. Typically there’s a least an S&P 500 fund, a bond index fund, and often an international index fund. That’s all you need, and nobody is going to sell shares in those funds without your say-so. My 401k allows me to select a target ratio between each fund, so I can have whatever split I want, and I can choose to have it auto-rebalance (I think it costs something) or just contribute new money according to that ratio (free, that’s what I do).
Every 401k is a little different, but 401k custodians have certain fiduciary responsibilities, so they have to provide a reasonable selection of funds. Even actively managed funds can be fairly passive, so read up on the prospectus and find a lowish cost fund that targets an index, even if it’s actively managed.