Many 401ks are shrinking
Many 401ks are shrinking

Retirees 'stunned' as market turmoil over tariffs shrinks their 401(k)s

Many 401ks are shrinking
Retirees 'stunned' as market turmoil over tariffs shrinks their 401(k)s
Is there anything I can do? Not that I'm retiring anytime soon. I probably can't take out the money but should I stop contributing to mine or something?
Keep doing what you're doing. If you're not retiring soon this has pretty much no impact on you and is in fact somewhat helpful to allow you to get in at a lower cost basis
No, unironically buy the dip.
If you have a safety net and no high interest debt keep contributing and hold your positions.
💎🙌
Be like me and have a job too shitty to have a 401k
If you’re younger, then this is somewhat beneficial. Now is the “low” in “buy low, sell high”.
Despite all the drama, historically the market’s going to bounce back before you know it.
My employer contributes a set amount whether or not I contribute. Not a match. I do choose between a handful of different index funds or bond or money market index funds… I don’t fully understand this. Is one of these smarter to be in right now? And should I keep my personal contribution going if it isn’t necessary for matching? Thank you fellow communists for your financial advice.
Getting out of stocks in January would have been smart. Now it's kind of a crapshoot. it depends on how old you are and what you're planning on doing with the money though. If you're young it's probably better to just hold your positions. If you're nearing retirement you should probably already be investing a lot more conservatively regardless of the state of the market.
If you don't have an emergency savings or you have high interest debts then it might be better to put your income towards that rather than the 401k, moreso the closer to retirement you are. If you're young and have a safety net you should probably just keep putting the money in though.
Ordered from most to least volatile.
At this moment it's bad to be in stocks: it's a bad deal to sell the stock to buy something else, because they are relatively cheap. The flip side is that it's a good deal to accumulate stock because it's relatively cheap.
So the employer contribution should go to the index fund. Keep several months of expenses in cash or money market in case you end up unemployed during a crash.
I’m not super financially literate buuuuut I’d say bonds. They don’t participate in the nightmare machine known as the stock market, which is a plus. They’re guaranteed, no hoping line go up or stressing line go down. And if they can’t repay you, well your 401k won’t be a concern at that point.
I thought le swiss state bonds was the panacea of all gen x stock market advice!
I am not financially literate enough to understand this, so probably don’t do bonds?
Ignore it. Maybe transfer a slightly higher amount to more stable bonds or something similar. Attempts to individually manage investments are usually over-tinkering.
I think it's not a bad idea to have some gold (in hand) if you can afford it. Not as an investment but as an inflation hedge and a way to buy a plane ticket in an emergency. Kind of like wearing a chain to afford bail but for the entire country.
Transferring funds out of stocks when they lose value is a guaranteed way to lose money. This is when people should buy stocks, and transfer to bonds when stocks are at their all time high values (which they very likely will be again in the medium to long term future)
Index funds are down around 5-10%. Currently things are quite uncertain. Some policies could be reversed and you'd see a rally. Demand might skyrocket for a month and then crash, making it a 20-30% loss. Is this the dip to buy? In generally individuals cannot reliably make that judgment. Uncertainty means you should ideally move away from volatility, at least just a little. If you're 80% index funds and 20% bonds or CDs or similar, consider 70-30 as a hedge. This could go either way, the point is that it is more conservative, it protects against large losses at the expense of average potential for gaining because the market seems particularly risky/volatile.
If you have cash to throw at a retirement fund and want to gamble (buy low sell high etc etc), I would personally wait a month or so. It is now more likely than ever that shortages and accompanying price hikes will hit. Commerce has small warehouses now. "Just in time" logic. That would cause an actual profitability crisis.
All very good points. I can only wonder how long the money brigade will let trump run rampant before it starts to affect their portfolios and outlook to the point where they step in. I can't imagine the capital that benefits from Trump will actually let him significantly damage their assets in a proper crash.
I guess you could say I'm in the "nothing ever happens" camp on this, but only time will tell
The big players benefit from the business cycle. They build up big war chests when they think there will be a downturn abd then buy up all the smaller companies that fail. Overall everything gets worse but they don't really care about that.
I do think they are flirting with a massive crash that hasn't been seen in ages. Quantitative easing remains at full blast. There aren't many tools they would actually want to use to stabilize "the economy" when there is a crash. So it could just be a Great Depression 2.0. Tariffs destroy demand and the country is propped up by imperialist consumption + IP so I think this disaster has legs.
Of course Trump could reverse course on the tariffs and call them a negotiating tactic instead of a failure at any moment. Who knows.
Appreciate your insight