For your consideration ...
Afraid and Paranoid? Ha. Don't project your own failings unto me. I have
never gambled in the casino that is the "markets". Therefore I could not have ever been "burned". In all trades there is always a winner and a loser, buyer and seller, with a middle man getting a cut. Financial markets controlled by those that operate it, to their personal benefit, or evil doings to pick the winners and losers. Also know as a counter party risk. Even cash/currency in people's pockets/wallets has a counter party; the bank that owns that "note".
I am merely informing the class of past financial history and the inherent coming financial dangers to be set upon us and how to, to the best of their ability, protect themselves financially. Just because I do not "invest" in any type of financial markets, does not mean I don't know, and understand, how the system works and the manipulation that occurs on a daily basis.
The average person, worker, simply does not have the financial knowledge and background to make well informed decisions and take the words of advisors, which profit from them, as prophecy. Why? Because most people are extremely ignorant, [not stupid], in such matters due to our failing education system. When things go south, does that advisor make up for the losses that a person, investor, might experience. Oh hell no. Yes, people can gloss over their investment information provided by their 401K or IRA account managers and/or put their monies in other vehicles. But they are using information from outside sources which lack the complete foundational understandings/explanations or what does on underneath or in the companies those investments represent. All the majority see the the possible returns shown to them, in which those decision are made. Completely lacking understanding in market dynamics or in any company's financial health.
And you come on here mocking them, me, saying that investing is as simple and risk free as putting their money in a saving account. If a person has $100K in a 401K, and that investment loses 50%, and it takes 2 years, or more, to recover back to $100K, that investment, even when back to $100K, has lost so much value, due to inflation, that it's pretty much a given that that investment will never keep, or increase to the level necessary to up with inflation. Even with those weekly or bi-weekly contributions from their paychecks.
And as I said, how many people, with a full time job, raising a family, and dealing with all of life's other problems, have the time to learn, and understand the first thing about investing? They don't. They have to rely on people that hand the customer rose colored glasses prior to pitching their spiel. These are the people that will suffer the most, because they put their trust in those that profit from their decisions. There are thousands and thousands of people employed by the huge financial conglomerates, and hedge funds, specifically to do due diligence when it comes to investing for the companies they work for. And even they get it wrong many times. (Even Sequoia Capital, which invested $210 million in FTX, which spends $100 Million a year to conduct their due diligence, lost that $210 Million and wrote that investment to zero on their books). And you expect us to believe your whitewashing BS that the investment process as being so easy? Most regular people trying to do due diligence on processes, markets, financial instruments can't even understand them the with watered down versions of information provided by the very industry that is geared for the sole purpose of separating them from their money?
I write these things because I hate to see people getting taken advantage of. Or lose so much they must enter the workforce once again to make ends meet when they should be comfortably, not ostentatiously, but a simple and humble retirement. What I write might be opinion, but there is some serious truth to what I write. Not some pithy insignificant invective diatribes that lack content and substance such as yourself.
Here is another way, absent from pulling out your monies, to protect what is currently in your retirement account, by moving those assets to very low risks vehicles not indexed to the stock markets. It can be complicated. But at least in this way, you won't be subject to any penalties, while limiting the risk of losing money when the volatility hits.
Market volatility is inevitable. Follow these tips to protect your 401(k) from a stock market crash, including proper asset allocation and rebalancing.
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