News this week that inflation eased more than expected in October solidified the view that the Federal Reserve is done with its most aggressive rate-hike campaign in four decades.
And that could be a boon for the stock market and your 401(k).
Keep in mind the following: source
About 158 million Americans, or 61% of U.S. adults, own stock.
The top 1% holds 54% of stocks, worth $19.16 trillion.
The bottom 50% of U.S. adults holds only 0.6% of stocks, worth $21 billion.
White Americans own 89% of stocks, worth $31.87 trillion.
U.S. families held a median value of $52,000 in stocks as of 2022, far below the peak of more than $58,592 in 2001. This figure includes directly held stocks and mutual funds.
Don’t forget that when someone is talking about the average American “owning stocks” what they really mean is “has a retirement account that works in a way they don’t fully understand, which includes securities such as stocks, that they are not legally allowed to touch until they are 60”.
Anyone who tries to insinuate that the way average Americans “own stocks” is in any manner comparable to the way the wealthiest do, should honestly literally be put in the stocks where commoners can hurl tomatoes at them.
Clown economy
It’s doing its job.
Rich people are getting richer while poor people squabble over bullshit.
so we’ll go from overvalued to extremely overvalued?
Magic numbers go up!
This will be great for the 35% of working Americans with a 401k.
Oh good! The imaginary numbers will get larger.
You shouldn’t dismiss those as imaginary as money doesn’t pop out of thin air. All those gains need to be created by real workers being exploited harder elsewhere.
When tech companies that have never made a profit are still being traded for significant amounts of money per share, I’d call it imaginary numbers.
I prefer potential money. Still imaginary, but “could be” money.
Stock price isn’t necessarily tied with profits, nor doesn’t have to. It’s more of a sign of confidence the company will do better than it currently is. That measurement with a lot of tech companies was tied to increasing marketshare.
The hope is that eventually a company’s high marketshare can be leveraged to produce profits later.
Interest means that money does, in fact, pop out of thin air.
The numbers are imagined and have a weak relationship to how many ppl get exploited, but the system as a whole does make people exploit others.
The green line requires blood.
Pivoting from pensions to a 401(k) is one of the biggest fleeces the ruling class has gotten away with.
Things really were better in the past.
I might be richer if I bought into the stock market, but then I might be richer if I played the poker tables at the local casino.
I also might be a lot poorer.
Not my style.
I can’t afford to invest anyway.
Your financial decisions are your own but I would strongly - strongly advise you to think about your retirement as soon as possible. I have a 401k and a Roth IRA and I shovel as much of my weekly paycheck as I can. If I had started younger, say early twenties, I could have put significantly less money in there and have the same retirement savings now.
Time is much more important than money.
I just had to quit my job, which was so low-paying I didn’t have anything to invest with, in order to be a “learning coach” for my daughter’s online school. Now we’re on a single income. So it must be nice to have that kind of money to put into a retirement account, but we don’t have it.
Luck is more important than time. Eg. Ill health, caring for children/relatives, debt, mental health issues, etc. You can do everything right and still lose. That is life. In this hypercapitalist and often unequal system, it is more likely that you will lose.
A lot of people haven’t saved enough for retirement. Not all of them did so out of ignorance. They simply had no choice but to prioritise the short term. More than you think, they’re too ashamed to be honest about it, even if it’s arguably not their fault.
Not you because you were simply responding to a comment, but this is why I strongly recommend people don’t lecture too much when it comes to retirement and check their privilege. A lot of people are simply unaware of the privileged position they’re in, would prefer not to think about how easy it is to lose everything, and that most people simply can’t afford to invest even if they wanted to.
Eg. My current pension plan is to not live beyond 65. It’s deeply sad, but it is what it is. I try to focus on the here and now. I’m lucky enough to have a roof over my head, but you’d be surprised how many homeless people have degrees. Hard science degrees too. People with decades of experience. It’s scary.
Eg.
https://invisiblepeople.tv/how-highly-educated-people-end-up-on-the-streets/
Not my style.
Investing in your and your children’s future should be your style, it should be everyone’s style.
I can’t afford to invest anyway.
Investing even 5% of each paycheck makes a massive difference, particularly if you start early. Money invested in total stock market funds doubles roughly every 10 years. Meaning, for every 10 years you decide to put this off, for every 10 years you decide to just not think about your and your children’s future, you need to put twice as much money in to get the same outcome.
A so the pyramid scheme continues…good?
Do you think 401ks are a pyramid scheme?
Do you think the stock market is not?
Wikipedia uses a good definition for pyramid scheme:
A pyramid scheme is a business model that recruits members via a promise of payments or services for enrolling others into the scheme, rather than supplying investments or sale of products. As recruiting multiplies, recruiting becomes quickly impossible, and most members are unable to profit; as such, pyramid schemes are unsustainable and often illegal.
I don’t think that describes a 401k. I don’t get money if I convince you to open a 401k. I do pay fees to a company to manage my 401k but I’ve chosen the lowest fees available to me.
Tell everyone who lost their retirement in a 401k to a big company that it is not a pyramid scheme
Cite your sources. 401ks are insured against loss. Are you referring to pensions?
Really? Like even during substantial drops in the 2008 crisis? I’m legitimately asking because if this is true then I have some digging to do.
Okay… But the 401k holders aren’t being cheated in this instance. They bought an asset that can increase or decrease. It increased for a long time. Then decreased. Then increased again FAR beyond where it was in 2008 just 6 years later. Most investors kept their money in and are doing just fine.
401ks are insured against losing the assets, e.g you own 500 of a particular option, you will always own those 500 unless you sell or that particular asset goes belly up, which is quite rare.
Pensions are a different beast. Closer to the pyramid scheme referenced earlier, and were generally dissolved over the last 40 years by the companies that promised them.
That’s not even slightly true. The only differences between a regular investment fund and a 401k are that you don’t have to pay income tax on the money you put into a 401k it and you can’t withdraw your money before retirement without substantial penalties.
Never said they were special. But they are (generally) regulated securities, unlike pensions. Regulated securities have many layers of protections.
The stock market is historically overvalued right now. The long-term direction is downwards, not upwards.
That’s an interesting take. What do you base your prediction on?
not who are responding to but price to earnings ratio is high.
It is well above historical valuations. Ultimately, the problem is that you simply won’t get much of an ROI if you keep on investing on stocks at these valuations. So the natural trend is for people to move away from stocks,
So you sent me down a rabbit hole and I agree with you. I think the market is overvalued. For me the question is now what does that mean and I see three possible options: 1) market trends down to equilibrium 2) market quickly drops to equilibrium & 3) market over corrects and goes below equilibrium. It looks like from the great recession until 2015 we were under valued and valuation has spiked since then except for the COVID drop, which brought us again to equilibrium. I think #2 is the most likely scenario. I’m not going to pull my retirement accounts out but I’m going to keep an eye on this. Thanks for the heads up
Interest rates are pretty good right now. It isn’t hard to find an account at 4.75% to 5% interest. While stocks will do better over the long term, if you don’t trust them then this is also a solid option.
I will add that I still think we are due for a correction but that comes from the major stocks warming that the current quarter sales are gonna look ugly, even grocery stores have been warning that overall sales on amount and expense are down. Discount groceries sure are taking off too. I don’t know how much of a dip but I think the post black Friday numbers might cause a short term slump on a lot of retail stocks
Inflation will hurt Christmas sales for sure. We’re buying less at my house
stonks😎
