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Bad Taste From Stocks So Far

I know you aren’t really supposed to check on your long term investments, especially when you know the stock market has been doing nothing good lately, but today I checked on my Vanguard account to see where it stands.  This month, coincidentally, is  2 years from when I first started my mutual fund that invests in the Vanguard 500 Index Fund.  Over the 1st year I made a few contributions, and then went cold turkey at the end of 2007.  This of course could be looked at as either a nice move, or a mistake, because even while it was dropping I should have been dollar-cost averaging.  I’m sitting at -38.8% currently on my funds that are in the 500 Index Fund, ouch!

My Roth IRA is a different story altogether.  I’m on track to have 2008′s contribution maxed out before the tax deadline, and then start on 2009.  I’ve stepped back on anything that invests with stocks on it and have it sitting entirely in guaranteed interest.  I know the real earnings is in the stock market, but I just feel safer, at least momentarily sticking with guaranteed.  I’ve also raised my 403b contribution at work to 20%, which I’ve noticed grows much more quickly, and leaving it all in guaranteed interest for now.