New York (AP) – Michael Montgomery used to check the balance of his retirement account once a week and smile. But in recent times, not wanting to get angry and wondering if he could retire in a few years, there was only one solution.
“I’m not looking for,” said Huntington Woods 66 -year -old professor Michigan.
Like the White House simultaneously Injects disorders on the financial markets with its trade war And rejects the fears of a slowdown, retired and almost retired Americans look forward to, worried about surviving their savings or having to postpone the entries on their bucket lists.
Keeping disconnected your account made Montgomery’s days less disturbing. He and his wife adjusted their portfolio after the election day, including the movement of more money in the obligations. But he does not know what he can do more if the whole world economy can be affected by Washington’s decisions.
“I hope hell, I don’t lose all my retirement savings,” he said. “But where could you put the money that these people could not disorder? They cannot enter your mattress, but that’s it.”
Many experts have warned that American actions were too expensive and for a correction even before President Donald Trump recovers the oval office. But a historical coverage of prices has injected new uncertainty into the market.
However Stocks have rallied this weekThe S&P 500 is down 10% compared to a summit of all time reached in February. Losses in Nasdaq and among small capitalization stocks are more steep. Even bonds And The US dollar were volatile. Many economists warn against a possible recession.
Jeanne Oats, 71 years old, is so “paranoid” that she called her financial planner with an idea.
“What if we put it all in cash?” Asked the Estridge oats.
“I don’t recommend it,” she heard.
The Oatsridge, which lives in Dayton, Ohio, has retired from a job in software engineering and now writes books, including its last women, out of four octogelian Kite women by extraterrestrials of sex traffic. Her account is down more than $ 40,000 and she gets angry when reflecting on how some of Washington have reacted to market volatility, including recent Trump market assessment that it was “a good time to buy”.
“Where am I supposed to find the money to buy?” My underwear drawer? Estridge oats request.
Earlier this month, the CBOE volatility index, considered a “gauge of fear” of investors pessimismhas reached its highest level in five years. The index, known as Vix, has since fallen, but is still in territory reflecting frightening investors. Another measure of the feeling of the market, the volatility index of the left tail CBOE S&P 500, which, which The investor follows is concerned about the so -called “Swan Black” events Like the 2008 housing accident which stimulated the great recession, it also fell from peaks but remains high.
Trump has urged people to “be cool” in the evaluation of the impact of prices on their investments. Asked about his own savings earlier this month, he gleaned and replied: “I did not check my 401 (K).”
Treasury secretary Scott Bessent, in the meantime, has rejected the possibility that some need to delay retirement, telling people “Do not look at the daily fluctuations in what’s going on.”
This apparent nonchalance is not well seated with certain older investors.
Peter Rost, 72, retired from his job development job last year and planned to start operating his retirement savings to complete Social Security. But he does not want to cook in his losses.
“I am trying to take $ 2,000 and meanwhile, the account drops by $ 30,000,” he said.
He has already made serious slowdowns, but these were different.
“I had time to be patient and let him go back on his way,” explains Rost, who lives in New Hartford, Connecticut, “but now I am retired and I need money from this account.”
At his age, he says, there is one goal: “Make sure you don’t run out of money before you die.”
The retirement savings of the Americans totaled around $ 44 billions at the end of 2024, according to the investment company Institute. The composition of these savings has moved more and more to actions in the past two decades, because the 401 (K) has become the typical offer of employers.
Among the nearly 5 million accounts of the Vanguard fund giant, for example, the average investor puts three quarters of their savings in shares. Even older investors are still strongly imbued with shares: people from 55 to 64 have 64% in shares in Vanguard; These 65 and over have 49% in shares.
With this exhibition, financial advisers receive an influx of calls in the middle of recent market uncertainty.
TJ Binkowski, who heads close financial planning of the road to Clarksville, Tennessee, says that some customers find themselves obsessively checking their accounts and feeling the emotional pressure of worrying about their money. A slowdown, he says, strikes an older investor very differently.
“When you are retired, paper losses are no longer just on paper,” says Binkowski. “You lock them every month that you remove money.”
Paul Duresterhaus, a retiree of 68 years of Quincy, Illinois, has a withdrawal from IRA this year to avoid selling to a hollow. Instead, the retirement director of an aerial compressor manufacturing company will discourage the purchase of a new car as planned and will reduce things like eating in the restaurant.
However, he cannot help feeling greater impacts of a trade war.
“I think there will be more lasting effects that will affect each American,” he says.
This anxiety is more frequent in the elderly than the youngest. A survey in April by The Associated Press-Noc Center for Public Affairs Research Found just under half of adults 45 and over, said their retirement savings were a source of “major” stress for them at the moment, against around a third of young people. Older Americans were also more likely to say that they are stressed by the stock market.
For the moment, many older investors follow the advice of many experts, to refine investments if necessary, but avoid dramatic movements. But it can be difficult to swallow.
“The more things go up and down, the more you become nervous,” said Steve Turner, a 74 -year -old man from Chesterfield, Missouri, who heads a small public relations business. He now finds himself anxious when he will connect to his retirement account, wondering: “Gee, do I want to press the button?”
“You fear that things can take place in the long term, but you don’t have so long,” says Turner. “You are not 30 years old, you are not 40 years old, you are not 50 years old, you are not even 60.”
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Matt Sedensky is contacted (protected by e-mail) and https://x.com/sedensky.
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The writer Associated Press Amelia Thomson-Deveaux in Washington contributed to this report.
