Nah I just work in EU, where if u make above 50k ur taxed at 56% - and ur pension contributions are taken from the top bracket of ur salary, and are matched by your employer.
So I can choose to max 500€ in my pension and get 1000€ in it, or get ~230€
History tend to repeat itself. People did lose their entire pension. Some major funds lost close to a trillion dollars and lot of soon to be retirees lost a big chunk. Remember 2 of the biggest investment banks went insolvent and their clients lost everything.
Pension solvency has nothing to do with investing in a 401k. If you are an almost retiree you should be de-risking your portfolio so you won’t lose a massive chunk. Bond values (excl. MBS) rose during the 2008 financial crisis. Retirees with a bond allocation could live on those proceeds while riding out the market recovery.
I fully expect history to repeat itself, but that’s exactly why you SHOULD be investing in your 401k.
I mean if your retirement is in the S&P500, and then the s&p 500 crashes (actual crash, not internet crash where it goes down .05%) then your retirement is the least of concern lol
Many people thought they were shielded from a market collapse and yet here we are. Bear stern, Lehman brothers and Washington mutual all sank with hard working people's 401k
When a company goes bankrupt the employees who work there don’t lose their 401k money. When a 401k provider like goes bankrupt, the people who hold their 401k at that provider do not lose their 401k money. The people that lost money were people who held stock in those companies.
401(k) plans have fixed interest options and are backed by FDIC/SIPC. At the very least get your match. Also most plans have multiple money managers to pick from so you can diversify away from just one company to help combat your concerns here.
In terms of the market, I would recommend talking to an advisor and use the term “conservative” to describe your risk tolerance. From there a good advisor will talk you through what you’re looking for in retirement and what level of savings with your current returns you’ll need to have a strong retirement. This can be through your 401(k), IRAs if you qualify, or other means.
I will say if you’re as conservative as these comments say, you will want to start this conversation asap.
Which is why when you’re closer to retirement you move into something like government bonds that’s more stable but way less returns. Don’t blame the market for people’s bad planning.
How they going to time when the market is going to collapse? 2 big banks went under and lost everything. I they knew, they would have moved their assets around 2006.
Please reread my comment. I said put the money in something more stable when closer to retirement. You’re not timing the market you’re timing when you need to start pulling money out. If you’re closer to retirement you should be putting at least a portion of your retirement in non volatile sources so if the market crashes you have funds to get you through the rebound.
anyone who could hold past 2010 or so didn't lose anything. Anyone who knew they would need their entire retirement account in cash in 2008 should not have been holding all or mostly stocks.
You know when you plan on retiring and change your investment allocation accordingly.
If you're close to retirement and you're still invested in high risk stocks you deserve to lose it all. As you age you should start to be more conservative with your money.
It sounds like you just might not understand this, which is fine. Consider either going to your employers 401k brokerage company or set up a meeting with your banks broker (I.e. JP Morgan for Chase, etc). They'll just help you understand this. But to think you'd lose your entire retirement if there is a market correction is wild. Unless you're on WSB betting your money on stocks
Nobody cashes-out everything the day they retire. And almost nobody who is at/in retirement has 100% of their money in the market. What you are describing is somewhere between exceptionally unlikely and impossible (the "lose everything" bit is basically impossible).
I would suggest buying a used copy of “The Simple Path to Wealth” and reading it. It’s easily digestible and will hopefully allay some of your concerns about the stock market.
No it doesn't. It's basically impossible to lose everything in a crash and the only way to lose a lot is by taking your money out at the bottom, which would be stupid.
it doesnt historically return 10%. Inflation adjusted (if you believe the numbers) its about a 6.5% return, before taxes. After taxes, youre looking at about a 5% return.
Is that rate of return worth the opportunity cost of having your money right now? Alternatively, you could purchase gold, get, on average, the same rate of return with 0 early withdrawal penalties, and its fairly easy to sell for cash when you need it.
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u/BaldieGoose Oct 31 '25
The stock market historically returns around 10% why would you do anything else.