Are these 401k fluctuations typical?

Question

Wed 6-11 $190,011

Thurs 6-12 $189,832

Fri 6-13 $191,120

Mon 6-16 $191,818

Tues 6-17 $193,245

Wed 6-18 $192,652

Thurs 6-19 $192,643

Fri 6-20 $190,440

And these Roth IRA fluctuations? Typical?

Wed 6-11 $22,823

Thurs 6-12 $22,788

Fri 6-13 $22,956

Mon 6-16 $22,995

Tues 6-17 $22,976

Wed 6-18 $22,846

Thurs 6-19 $22,837

Fri 6-20 $22,513

Answer 1

In the current environment?  Very typical.

Answer 2

this fluctuation is called volatility.  It is to be expected.  Your 401k is invested in mutual funds and/or company stock.  Their valuations are subject to the securities held in the stock market.  Overall if you look at it, there was only total swing of less that 1% over that timeframe.  Normal for a pretty unstable market.

Answer 3

The best way to evaluate the fluctuations is against some benchmark such as say the S&P 500 or something similar, perhaps some mutual fund

SPY on 6-11 was 133.27

on 6-20 131.58 but it did go ex dividend of 0.669 on 6-20.  Perhaps your 401k account did also.

Anyway the variance was a negative 1.69 or  1.284% from low to high.  

The variance of your 401k account was a positive 429 or   0.226%.  Not bad at all.  Actually very good.

The Roth IRA variance was negative 310 or 1.38%.  Somewhat more volitile than the S&P 500, but certainly not a significant amount.   Certainly within the uncertainty of a random variable.

Answer 4

First of all, well done on putting that much money away. In my mind it is remarkable that you are doing so well even though you claim that you don't know much about investing.

These fluctuations are very normal. Daily fluctuations, weekly fluctuations, even monthly fluctuations don't matter that much. What is most important is how your savings grow over a long period of time. I am sure your savings have grown nicely compared to 5 or 10 years ago, right? Check out http://www.vilkri.com/pubreader.php?page... where we discuss long term growth.

If you continue investing, it will not even matter much when your holdings go down. You will be able to buy more shares or bonds with your new investments, when prices are low. Prices will most likely recover eventually which is when your investments will look great again. This technique is called dollar cost averaging. Read more on this at http://www.vilkri.com/pubreader.php?page...

Keeo up the good work!

Answer 5

What is a "fluctuation" type.    All investments "fluctuate". It doesn't matter if they're in a ROTH, IRA, 401K or an individual account.

YES..... There's nothing unusual about the fluctuations you're experiencing. Read a good book on Mutual Funds... Start with Mutual Funds for Dummy's.

BTW: This type of "fluctuation" can go on for years before you see a good profit...... that's "OK".... read about this stuff and you'll stop being concerned.