Really❓
Even though you can still find articles written about all the lost retirements, absent making poor decisions, that simply is not possible.
If you were already retired or within a few years of retirement the market crash probably caused you some problems and sleepless nights, especially if you were withdrawing funds at the time or were going to begin shortly. Even then you would not have lost all your retirement funds.
The biggest poor decision would have been to move all your money out of the stock market and into a bank account or money market fund.
Let’s look at the numbers. On October 9, 2007 the S&P 500 was at 1565.15. On March 6, 2009 the S&P 500 was 683.38. That is a loss of 57%; WOW‼️
Now, on June 12, 2015 the S&P 500 stood at 2094.11 an increase of 206% over the low point of 683.38 or 34% higher than the 2007 previous peak.
So if you had $200,000 in a S&P index fund in 2007 and left it there, you would have $268,000 today, perhaps more with reinvested earnings along the way. If you had done the really smart thing (ala Buffett) and continued to invest in your account throughout the recession, you would have much more.
It would appear that for most Americans saving for retirement the Great Recession may have been a lost opportunity more than a disaster … provided they did not panic and take action that assured their losses in 2009.
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
Absolutely right, we left our money were was and now we have more. I also tried to stop people from cashing out , but they didn’t always listen.
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Most people didn’t listen. Not only should they have left their money to grow, the really smart ones added to their equity funds during the recession.
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I disagree with what you are saying. I have held on to GE during this time, and the stock has dropped to half of it’s value and has never recovered from the time of the collapse. Of course it is great for investing in, however, I purchased it at $50 and it now trades at around $26 and hasn’t reached $30 that I know of so that is one stock that has not returned like perhaps others have!
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You can’t base what I say on one stock. The fact is the market has fully recovered and more. Average investors are taking a great deal of risk buying individual stocks as opposed to mutual funds specifically index funds, especially money set aside for retirement. Also, have you considered the dividends you have received?
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,
There may be a lot of people joining those ranks in the near future…
even those who think they are untouchable. Pride goes before a fall.
.
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Prudent long-term investing is the key and the only way to reach a secure retirement.
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