I’m 54 and my 401k is all I have. I’m just a factory worker so I don’t make that much, but have always saved and lived below my means. I’ve always bought everything with cash, just the normal bills. I thought I was doing pretty well.
Now it’s all gone, or will be in another week when we see the real panic selling start. I lost a 150k in the first two days. I should have moved everything to bonds when Trump started talking about tariffs, but it was on one day and off the next. I didn’t know what he was going to really do. I sure never dreamed up this crazy formula they came up with.
I was on track to be a 401k millionaire this year. Now it’s never going to happen. I don’t have enough years to get back half of what I lost. I want to jump off a bridge. I feel so stupid now. I guess all the gold bugs were right. It just never made any sense to me. Why would anyone care about a yellow rock.
Just stay the course. Don’t sell; don’t panic. Remember 2001, 2008, COVID, and all the other corrections. The market recovered and went on to new highs. It’s all theoretical money anyway, until you retire and start using it.
Keep contributing, as now is an incredible opportunity to buy at low prices.
At some point you should start moving money from stocks to capital preservation vehicles like bonds, money markets, CDs, HSAs. You should not be 100% invested in the stock market at your age.
I remember years ago we had a downturn (was it 2008?). A reporter asked Bill Gates: “How do you feel? You just lost a billion dollars”. Bill’s reply: “I haven’t lost anything. I haven’t sold anything”. Very simple.
The 08 crash didn’t bother me cause I was a long way from retirement. Now I’m screwed. I think this is going to be far worse than the 08 crash. In 1930 the market dropped 80%, I think you will see at least that. The price of everything just went up. Nothing is made in this country anymore. Even for the few US companies left, everything that makes it run comes from overseas. Input costs are going up. You’re going to see inflation go through the roof. Let’s say a company does decide to bring manufacturing back. It takes 5 years to build a plant, and get it up and running. Good luck finding anyone that will work anymore. We can’t, we have job fairs and no one even shows up. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt that they do find workers. A pair of Nike shoes made here would cost as much as a new car. I just don’t see any of this working
I believe it’s about more than manufacturing. It’s also a strategy to help pay off the $36 trillion debt in a way that doesn’t raise taxes. Some say it’s a strategy to lower interest rates before refinancing debt.
Yes, tariffs will increase prices, at least in the short term. However, we also know from the last 4 years that printing money and massively running up the debt also causes massive inflation and price increases. Is inflation from a stock market kept artificially high by government spending better than tariff inflation?
I’m much more worried about the government going bankrupt than a recession or anything else.
I haven’t done anything yet. Essentially that’s the question…move what I have left to bonds and lock in my losses to save what I have left or do nothing and risk it all.
I cant get ahold of anyone at the brokerage firm to tell me if I do move it, if that takes place right away or three days?
I guess will see who’s right. We’re going down 5-6% a day. I see no reason for buyers to step in
I’m just sitting here looking at the charts. I think we’re going back to the lows of 09, about 800 on the S&P. That’s when QE started and they kept interest rates at zero for ten years. It’s all been artificially inflated since then.
I was hoping it would last another couple of years, but I think the bubble has burst. I was to greedy.
And yes I do think the whole country is screwed
Well, it’s different for billionaires – they never have to sell, really.
They borrow off their “wealth” and thus avoid actually selling and paying taxes on the sale.
Plus, he probably has lots of other wealth than the stock shares in his company.
If I’m right I don’t have enough years left to ever make it back. Im in all cash in my trading account but it’s not enough to make any real money.
I’m going to let it ride. I feel like it’s too late to get out at this point. I’ve made my piece with it. No retirement for me. I guess it could be worse
How did you get to where you are today? Are you constantly contributing to your retirement plan via payroll or did you throw in one lump-sum long ago? Did you sell everything during the 30% drawdown in 2022 due to high inflation? Did you sell everything during the 20% drawdown from the Covid-19 economic shutdown in 2020 ?
I’ve put in 10-12% every week for 30 years. No I’ve never sold anything. The market goes up and down and we have a 10-20% correction at some point every year.
Maybe it because I’ve worked in manufacturing all my life and have a front row seat to what’s going on that I feel the way I do. This plan isn’t going to work.
This isn’t a normal correction, it wasn’t a black swan event. This was an unforced error . Japan, China, and South Korea just entered in a trade agreement, and they’ve hated each other for thousands of years. I know of two plants that are being closed now.
Second , the market has been propped up by free money since 08-09. That’s when they should have left everything burn to the ground,. But no, we just bail out the bankers and creat an even bigger bubble. If this is the bubble bursting those are the levels we’re going back to. Look at the PE ratio of the S&P it’s crazy.
At least your smart enough to not bail at the wrong time. Let it sit, it’ll come back.
A few years ago the market was very high and I had one 401K that was run by Fidelity. The “cash” option was the credit union at the company I worked for. I dumped it all there. A few months later the market took a dump and I smiled as my 401K didn’t go down. But my other 401K and an IRA went down…and back up.
This isn’t a strategy. This is a concept of a plan. The other countries are NOT paying for the tariffs. The U.S. is.
The U.S. economy was the envy of the world before Trump took over. Our economy weathered the covid finance problems better than any other country.
Now our trade partners are looking elsewhere to do trade.
How do the farmers know what to plant? All the sales for USAID are gone now. What other tariffs are in the wings? How do businesses know what to buy? Will consumers be purchasing?
I get your concern. In 2008 it took about 18 months for the economy to recover. This is an unprecedented self-inflicted wound. Will tariffs stay? Will they get worse? Will other countries develop other partners?
The best plan is not to sell. That only locks in your losses. But when the market gets back on its feet, you should consider moving your assets to something less volatile. For your own peace of mind.
For sanity’s sake, I would not look at the market for awhile.
So there you go. Don’t take investing advice from the political hacks on the board. Go with the strategy that got you where you are, which is to keep buying. One thing I want to suggest…the closer you are to retirement the more conservative you want to be…
You must be living in some other country. Where I was living, the administration did something very foolish, despite many warnings, and propped up the stock market with massive government spending, which fueled inflation and destroyed paychecks. Now our country is $36 trillion in debt and going bankrupt.
The economy is not the stock market. People are not living trading-day to trading-day. Probably half the country or more doesn’t own a single stock or stock based mutual fund. I even know wealthy people who do not own a single stock; they invest elsewhere.
