GE,
You make a good point which kind of leads into what I wanted point out. What I get from this huge mess is a HUGE slap in the face reminder that the stock market is just like gambling. Only put in what you can afford to lose - and that includes investing in your own employer. Each time I have had a 401k plan introduced to me, its been the spiel of high risk, high return. What they forget to point out is that any investment is a risk and every investment has a risk of loss. Many of our employees who participate in 401k have lost thousands in the past year. And many of these folks neglected to fully educate themselves on the risk of loss. All they heard was the high risk, high return get rich quick speech. I asked so many questions that the rep "couldn't/didn't want to/wasn't prepared for" that he hates to even deal with me when he calls the office. Because of his attitude towards my questions, I don't trust him and have chosen not to participate at this time. Unfortunately, I know I'm not getting any younger and need to start looking ahead.
If you have money invested anywhere, you need to pay close attention to what is going on with those investments. You need to educate yourself on how the stock market works and ask questions of your plan administrator. If not, you could very well end up like these poor lemmings at Enron. I have to wonder how many of them actually saw the signs and chose to ignore them because of the promise of big $$$. I mean, c'mon, just because my boss says to put my money in such & such fund doesn't mean I should blindly do what he says. Its my money, not his. If it goes south, I lose, not him.
Nothing is infallible. NOTHING!!
Michelle
