I not at all surprised given all the economic problems we've been having lately.  This morning I was checking my finances and decided to look at a graph of my 401(k) performance over the last year.  It was more or less holding its own until the last week when the markets took a dive.  My 401(k) is down roughly 23.5% from its yearly high back in June.  Obviously I'm not alone here and just about everyone else's 401(k) looks very similar.

It will go back up eventually and any contributions I make right now are obviously going to be worth a lot more to me in the long run.  Since the DOW is at the same place it was in 2004, it's kind of like rolling back the clock.  From 2004 up until late 2007, I believe my 401(k) gained somewhere in the neighborhood of 12-14% each year.  Not too shabby and I didn't have a financial planner to help until 2007.  Even if this downturn lasts a while, I would expect at least a mediocre 6-7% return following the current downturn.  The grass will certainly be greener when all the markets sort themselves out.