No. Unless you had a ton of money in the account and you were already very close to retirement it just wouldn’t make sense. There are a lot of penalties when you pull an account early. I made a hardship withdrawal back in 2023 to make the down payment on my first home and that made sense for me, but even that type of thing isn’t right for everyone.

Your 401k will rebound eventually, retirement investment requires you to play the long game. If things get bad enough that your 401k is wiped out entirely then it really won’t matter whether or not you pulled the money out because it would likely be worthless in that situation.

It may be wise to change your elections so that the investments are less aggressive/volatile if you have that option, but otherwise try not to think about the total dollar amount as the economy shits the bed. It’s not like a bank account where the dollars equal dollars directly, the value of the investments can change quickly.

No. However if you're the type of person to ask in this question, you should be invested in a target date fund. As part of the way they attempt to hedge for retirement, the include exposure to international funds and bonds.

So, from an investing standpoint, there's really only two things that can happen. Either the market will recover, and continue steady growth, at which point you'll definitely be mad if you pulled out completely. The alternative is the collapse of the Western hegemony, at which point you'll have much bigger problems than your 401k account.

Kind of a similar-ish question. I recently moved my 401k from an old employer to my personal account. All my money is now sitting uninvested. As much as I'd love to hire someone to look over my accounts, I can't really justify that at the moment. In the most basic way possible, can anyone suggest specific indexes, stocks, whatever the terminology is that I should or could invest my money into?

You should regularly invest in broad-market index funds and not pay attention to the news (as far as your investing goes).

Tithe to yourself either before or after taxes, the church set 10% for a reason, that is the fluff that you can give before it starts to bother.

Always maximize your matches.

If you are in a lower tax bracket now then you would be when you retire, put it into a roth. If a high bracket today then tomorrow, put it into a traditional.

High risk when you're younger. You can try to time market ups and downs, but unless you leg back in after you've pulled out, you are VERY likely to miss the upswings.

If you have enough to personally invest, either swing for the fences with 0dte or invest in products you use. You probably aren't wrong.

And remember that that first option win is free. Post your loss porn to wsb.

The best time to buy is when everyone else is losing their ass. This is the best time to buy, unless it isnt and the entire market dies.

I remember 2009-2010. It was much worse than this right now. The trick is keeping your job in this market.

I always buy stocks at their lowest and sell at their highest. Haven't lost money with that method yet.