4 ms·

So as someone investing for hopefully an eventual retirement, what am I supposed to do?

specialist 1y ago
Like everyone else, wait until the very last second, just as the market peaks, to unload your assets. Before the institutional investors and insiders beat you to the punch.
runeks 1y ago
Depends: when are you planning to retire?
- jdalgetty 1y ago
  20 years hopefully
  - smsm42 1y ago
    Spend well below your earnings, max out tax advantaged savings plans, save aggressively, invest lazily (standard blended portfolio or close to it probably will suffice) and 20 years should be enough to make a decent nest egg.
cogogo 1y ago
If you believe the rule of law and ~general financial stability of the US will persist just keep on investing regularly and ride it out. Markets have a long history of bouncing back and they will keep doing it until they don’t. When/if that happens your retirement dreams might seem quaint compared to the global socioeconomic reality. The people who could sustain the most near term pain are those who have already retired and are living in a fixed income.
- klooney 1y ago
  If the US collapses, conversely, stock/bond market investing choices won't matter.
  - saltcured 1y ago
    And, unfortunately, a sandwich-rich portfolio doesn't really help in the long run either.
  - BobaFloutist 1y ago
    And frankly I wouldn't trust my foreign market investments managed by a US company to still be there either. Also I'm not sure that foreign markets would be that thrilled by a US collapse either, at least not immediately.
navigate8310 1y ago
In the end, DCA will prevail.
smsm42 1y ago
Don't do stupid things, don't bet everything on a single prospect, don't listen to random people on the internet :)
- IAmBroom 1y ago
  Don't be employed by anyone who does; don't work with companies or industries that do; live in a shack and poo in a latrine you dug yourself.
  - smsm42 1y ago
    As long as you have a decent capabilities and range, and don't keep all your savings in your employer's stock (either real, or, more stupidly, imaginary "options"), stupidity of your employer will only affect you in the short term. In the longer term, you're likely find another one. It's not fun, but it's how it goes.
micromacrofoot 1y ago
live long enough to retire on the upswing if the upswing doesn't come our lifestyles are all screwed anyway
samrus 1y ago
Spend less, save, put it on index funds. The bubble popping will mess you up a little but time in the market > timing the market
rsynnott 1y ago
Index funds, generally. Ideally something more diversified than just an S&P500 one, but honestly historically it usually hasn't made _that_ much difference in the long run. Assuming you're talking decades away, it usually all comes out in the wash. Now, where you should really potentially worry is if you were retiring imminently and needed to pull out a bunch of money to make that happen. But if you're retiring in 20 years or whatever, and, say, the S&P halves next year, is it really, in the scheme of things, _that_ big a deal? If you could time it perfectly, you could come out better by selling now and reinvesting after the crash, but bear in mind that you probably cannot time it perfectly. People were predicting the 2008 crash imminently from about 2004 on, say, whereas the dot-com crash went from dark mutterings to chaos in a year or so. These things are very hard to time.

Like everyone else, wait until the very last second, just as the market peaks, to unload your assets. Before the institutional investors and insiders beat you to the punch.

runeks 1y ago

Depends: when are you planning to retire?

jdalgetty 1y ago
20 years hopefully
- smsm42 1y ago
  Spend well below your earnings, max out tax advantaged savings plans, save aggressively, invest lazily (standard blended portfolio or close to it probably will suffice) and 20 years should be enough to make a decent nest egg.

cogogo 1y ago

If you believe the rule of law and ~general financial stability of the US will persist just keep on investing regularly and ride it out. Markets have a long history of bouncing back and they will keep doing it until they don’t. When/if that happens your retirement dreams might seem quaint compared to the global socioeconomic reality. The people who could sustain the most near term pain are those who have already retired and are living in a fixed income.

klooney 1y ago
If the US collapses, conversely, stock/bond market investing choices won't matter.
- saltcured 1y ago
  And, unfortunately, a sandwich-rich portfolio doesn't really help in the long run either.
- BobaFloutist 1y ago
  And frankly I wouldn't trust my foreign market investments managed by a US company to still be there either. Also I'm not sure that foreign markets would be that thrilled by a US collapse either, at least not immediately.

navigate8310 1y ago

In the end, DCA will prevail.

smsm42 1y ago

Don't do stupid things, don't bet everything on a single prospect, don't listen to random people on the internet :)

IAmBroom 1y ago
Don't be employed by anyone who does; don't work with companies or industries that do; live in a shack and poo in a latrine you dug yourself.
- smsm42 1y ago
  As long as you have a decent capabilities and range, and don't keep all your savings in your employer's stock (either real, or, more stupidly, imaginary "options"), stupidity of your employer will only affect you in the short term. In the longer term, you're likely find another one. It's not fun, but it's how it goes.

micromacrofoot 1y ago

live long enough to retire on the upswing if the upswing doesn't come our lifestyles are all screwed anyway

samrus 1y ago

Spend less, save, put it on index funds. The bubble popping will mess you up a little but time in the market > timing the market

rsynnott 1y ago

Index funds, generally. Ideally something more diversified than just an S&P500 one, but honestly historically it usually hasn't made _that_ much difference in the long run. Assuming you're talking decades away, it usually all comes out in the wash. Now, where you should really potentially worry is if you were retiring imminently and needed to pull out a bunch of money to make that happen. But if you're retiring in 20 years or whatever, and, say, the S&P halves next year, is it really, in the scheme of things, _that_ big a deal? If you could time it perfectly, you could come out better by selling now and reinvesting after the crash, but bear in mind that you probably cannot time it perfectly. People were predicting the 2008 crash imminently from about 2004 on, say, whereas the dot-com crash went from dark mutterings to chaos in a year or so. These things are very hard to time.