Need serious advice on my IRA plan.....

You don't mention what it's invested in. But you are down 27%. The market (as measured by the S&P 500) is 'only' about 17% off it peak. With regular deposits and a bit of diversification, one should be down from the peak somewhat less than that.

I'd suggest you keep investing into a diversified, low cost stock fund, and learn to tolerate this type of market. As I learned in 1987, it was better to see $20K or so lose 30% from the August peak to raise my understanding of market volatility. I lived through the 2000-2002 market without losing sleep. (To be sure, I lost money, just not sleep.)

JOE

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It's a difficult time, to be sure. The market was down similarly 2000-2002, as Joe mentions. It was at this time that my husband and I were able to significantly increase our salary deferrals and IRA contributions. As such, we were buying funds when they were on sale.

Buy low/sell high. Joe suggests you look at which funds you are using. Yes, your balance is down, but you will need to have considerable more saved before you retire. Consider this an opportunity to learn more about how your money is invested, in addition to the opportunity to buy when your funds are "on sale."

Elizabeth Richardson

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This is nowhere close to "horrible". It's just so long since we've seen "not good" that it is easy to confuse with "horrible".

The key to successful investing is to let your head rule, not your emotions.

When someone asked Andrew Carnegie how to make money in the stock market, he answered "Buy low and sell high". What he didn't say is that that means you have to buy when everyone else is selling and sell when everyone else is buying.

Rather than sell now ("sell low") and buy later ("buy high"), you should consider increasing your investments rather than decreasing them. Assuming this is long term money, you're going to be buying bargains.

Have faith, my friend. There is a turn around out there some place, but no one knows when until it is past.

-- Doug

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What, exactly, are you investing in in your Roth IRA? Maybe you need to reconsider your risk tolerance, or maybe you just need to find better funds or more diversified investments.

Why would you think that selling low and buying high is a way to make money? Why would you want to throw away the tax advantages by withdrawing your money from a tax-sheltered account?

Why do you think it's better to save money in an account where you get no tax advantage from doing so, rather than in an account where your profits are tax-free?

-Sandra the cynic

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Markets are down. They do that.

Do you think you can predict when markets will rise and fall?

If you are invested in the stock market, then your horizon should be years and years, not months and months.

What do you mean by "the account"? The Roth itself? Or the investments in the Roth? If you pulled money out of the Roth, you can't put it back (at least not after a fairly short period). You should always fund the Roth regardless, even if it's just into a money market fund.

You haven't told us what you've invested in. It sounds like you're halfway down the road to "buy high and sell low." That's a bad road, turn around and come back.

Why? Do you want the markets to get high again before you buy?

You haven't given us enough information to work with. What is your investing horizon? What investments do you have in the Roth? What else do you have?

Brian

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A good plan might be to stop tracking your investment altogether. Put it away and foreget about it. Let a few years go by without even looking at the figures. Keep on letting the years pass. That way you can reduce anxiety and avoid the temptation to sell whenever the market declines. If you must open the envelopes for one reason or another, for example, to report something on your tax return, let someone else--wife, husband, friend--take care of the paper work. In a decade or two when you do open the envelope yourself, you will be pleasantly surprised.

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As an example, the MDY shares I bought right after 9/11 have grown by

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