Cleaning Up My 401K & Why You Should At Least Try To Budget, Even If You Fail

With respect to my 401K, I have diversified about $6,500 of my company stock across a range of investment options, thus clearing up that rather glaring hole in my investment portfolio. I'm sitting on my bad real estate investment for a while, as the stock rose a few points in the last couple of days, and if I can make it out of this year and break even, I'll consider myself happy!

With respect to MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, my attempt to survive 26 days off $184.66, I have essentially failed. It's been 23 days, and I'm about $60 over budget. However, this gets to the title of this particular post. I would have spent A LOT more this month if I hadn't kept this months spending within such stringent spending guidelines. I failed, technically, but I made an effort to keep things afloat. I sold a chalkboard I didn't need for about $100, mitigating my losses, and I feel really good about where I ended up. Now, when I started this month, I looked at my usual $700 in spending that I give myself, and I said ABSOLUTELY NOT, I can't do that. But I did a hell of a lot better than I would have imagined. So I'm giving myself a star for the month. OR, so as not to break open the champagne before the finish line, I'm anticipating a star. Because I've worked hard to spend as little money as possible, I'm on track for next month to live a little easier.

That's all. I'm at work and don't want to be, anymore, so asta-la-pasta, spaghetti-o's!

401K Bonehead Investment Move: Part 2

Thanks to Luke and Beth for the advice on the 401K. Luke gave me some fairly comprehensive advice that Beth basically agreed with. Here's what he said:

IF you have future 401k investments going in, I would suggest starting from there, with future funds, to begin the process of diversification.

Having 50% in company stock is far to high, but it doesn't mean you should sell all of it and that goes for the other 50% wrapped up in a REIT. How much wiggle room do you have with selling company stock? Do you have free reign to sell $8000 from the REIT at any time? Are there any restrictions in your plan? What are the minimums for your selection of funds? What are some of your funds you can chose?

Let me know and lets see if there isn't something that can be done.

I would think you could slowly begin the process of picking funds for future monies as well as over time, liquidating your company stock and REIT positions down to 10% a piece.

Let me know a tad more.

I like Luke and Beth's advice to start by changing the future allotments. I was in a mid-level panic, and going to change everything at once, but this seems like a more measured approach. My company stock portfolio page gives some suggestions for "Short" through "Long" term investment mixes. This is how they suggest you split your allocation for a "Long-Term Portfolio":

Stable Value 6%
Large Company Value 11%
S&P 500 Stock Index 12%
Large Company Growth 11%
Small Company Value 8%
Small Company Growth 8%
International Growth Stock 24%
International Value Stock 10%
Real Estate 10%

I'm basically going to follow the above advice, but because I'm so heavy in Real Estate right now, I'll shift that 10%, for the next year or so, across the rest. And... DONE!

Now, in answer to Luke's question: I just confirmed that I do have the option to change over all my company stock, and I can diversify it across the other funds listed above. I can also change how I allocate all my past investments in REIT. So, I guess the question becomes: how fast do I move money out of the company stock and/or the Real Estate? Any advice is much appreciated.

So. I've been off the radar for a few days, and I spent a good portion of that in the Emergency Room. I FELL IN THE SHOWER, and did a bit of damage to my lip and bruised the entire left side of my body. That was late in the evening on the 4th. After we got home, I went to take a shower, slipped, fell, took out the shower curtain and managed to earn myself three stitches. All while sober. It was very sad. Then, the next day, my girlfriend had a bad fainting episode that required an EMT call, so I spent all of the 5th looking after her. Really, really shitty. I'm incredibly sore, and I can barely move my left arm.

So, how's the old spending? I'm not really sure :) There were some emergency cab rides and miscellaneous comfort items that I bought, in a very "screw it" mood. My account says I spent $37.38, so I'll go with that. With respect to "Mission Impossible" (this is Day 19 of 26):

MISSION REPORT
Total Spent: $168.66
Total Remaining: $16.00
Percent Spent: 91.33%
Percent Time Elapsed: 73.08%

401K Bonehead Investment Move

I have about $20,000 in my 401K right now. 10K is in company stock, and 10K is in options of my choice. I'll get to the company stock later, but first... with respect to the money that I can shift between plans, at some point (I dimly remember doing this) I was getting more and more aggressive, and finally everything ended up in real estate. Yep. I know. That's the opposite of diversification. And, of course, real estate is doing really bad right now. My thought, when I was thinking, was that real estate might get bumpy for a bit, but eventually it would rise again. In retrospect (it's always in retrospect, isn't it?) it seems really dumb to ride the fund to the ground, only to see it rebound in a few years. I've already lost 11% THIS YEAR. Do I hold and wait for it to recover, or do I shift it? Any advice?

With respect to the company stock. My company was bought last year and all my stock automatically vested because of the merger. That means I can move it around, but the price of the stock, again, is way down. I just got the ability to diversify, but the stock is down from around $20 when we got it to $16. The stocks high was $45, and we're gaining share slowly back. People think it should recover in about three years. Not sure what I should do with all this. Any advice?