• Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world
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        3 hours ago

        But if you don’t sell, did you lose money. My 401k goes up and down all the time. But I didn’t lose any money. Same with my house value.

        • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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          40 minutes ago

          Yes, my net worth went down.

          The point of “you don’t lose money until you sell” is to discourage panic selling, but it’s total bunk. When you assets lose value, you do lose money, and how much that matters depends on when you need to access that money. As the article says, you may not care that you lost money if you don’t need to access the money, but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re now poorer if your assets drop in value.