Wow - what a Month so far...DOW=8,579.19

So it's been quite an eventful month so far:

October 1st - The DOW went down -19.59 points or - 0.18%. The Senate votes 74 to 25 for the 2nd try at the infamous 700 billion dollar "bailout".

October 2nd - The DOW went down -348.22 points or -3.22%. The Bailout is sweetened to $850 Billion in order to get more members of the House to vote for the bill.

October 3rd - The DOW went down -157.47 points or -1.50%. The House Approves the now, $850 Billion dollar, bailout.

October 6th - (Monday) The DOW went down -369.88 points or -3.58%. World markets around the world begin to fall before the US markets open. Japan's NIKKEI falls 4.25% , The London FTSE market falls 6%, Austria's Vienna stock exchange falls 8.4%, and Russia's RTS stock exchange start dropping 7% in the first 20 minutes and the Russian markets were frozen entirely after their markets dropped 10%. Needless to say the US followed suit - The DOW closes below 10,000 for the first time since 2004.

October 7th - (Tuesday) The DOW went down -508.39 points or -5.11%. The DOW goes to it's lowest point in nearly 5 years.

October 8th - (Yesterday) The DOW went down -189.01 points or -2.00%. "BIg BEN" Bernanke as he's called announces a 1/2 point rate cut - the DOW and the other indicators continue treading downward.

October 9th - (Today) The DOW went down -675.97 points or -7.30%. And then, there's today...the ban on short selling -which had been enacted temporarily in light of short-selling's affects on company's like Lehman brothers and AIG - was lifted and Morgan Stanley's stock headed south -26% and many financial stocks followed suit.

Did I mention my 401k has lost a good 5-6% too? Yesterday I called up my 401k provider and politely asked them to cut my losses and invest mostly in 'safer' things. Lord knows what tomorrow will bring - good thing I'm not planning on retiring anytime soon nor do I plan to rely solely on my 401k to do it.

I give up - I caught the falling knife.

So, after checking my 401k and seeing it went down (again) a 2nd month I decided to reduce my risky contributions - (small -to mid caps & International funds) and instead increased my guaranteed funds and bonds.


There are a few reasons I made the decision:

1. The DJIA has lost 10% since the beginning of the year
2. The S& P 500 has lost about 13% since the beginning of the year
3. Gas hit $107 today for the first time ever.
4. People with Million-dollar homes - people who should have better credit than me, soon won't because there houses are getting foreclosed upon!
5. The dollar is losing it's traction against the Euro and the yen.
   

Hopefully, that 'guaranteed' amount will help me keep my head above water as the markets appear to tank.