Companies stopping 401k matches

I just don't understand how they can do this sort of retroactively. I can understand moving forward in 2009. But to do this for 2008??? It doesn't even seem legal...

 

And they ruined all that by going to j-school.

 

And now the steel mill is shut down, or replanted in Asia. Yet there are more per capita millionaires in America than any other country, and WE also have the fastest percentage growth of poverty in the free world.

On the 401K matches, they might as well cut it. It's going down the drain anyway.

 

My company cut its 401k matches, effective April 1.
So here's the question for all of us who are having this happen — do you continue putting the same percentage in yourself (for me, it's 6 percent in order to get their 3), or do you drop what you are putting in?

 

Most 401ks, in my opinion, don't offer enough choices. So, take your money elsewhere.

 

Keep putting in your 6 percent. Better yet, bump it up to 9 percent if you can. THat probably sounds ridiculous given the economy and wage cuts and job losses, but if you can afford it and feel you have any kind of job security (at a daily newspaper, yeah right!), all the better for your longterm 401k outlook.

Opting not to fund your 401k at all this year would be a huge mistake. Now is the time to buy, buy, buy, even if it loses more value this year. When the market comes back and is growing again - 1 year?, 2 years? - all those cheap shares will skyrocket your overall value. Don't do what my sister-in-law is doing in 2009: she quit contributing to her 401k and her Roth altogether, and instead is putting that percentage of savings in her bank savings account. She says she'll invest again when the market isn't in negative numbers. I shake my head at her. Couldn't even convince her to buy even a crappy 1 or 1.8 percent CD for the year. instead, she'll make like .4 or .5 percent interest for the year, run the risk of not "timing" the market right when it turns and end up paying a little more than necessary to buy those funds again AND, even worse, miss out on owning 3x or 4x more shares than normal at cheap, cheap prices.

 

Not to piss all over your retirement ... but if you're in the newspaper industry, I have a feeling you won't be getting this deal for much longer.