Honestly what does retirement planning in America even look like anymore? The next five-ten years are looking to be extremely volatile both financially and politically. It almost feels more risky stockpiling a currency that may lose significant value or even devalue entirely if shit falls apart and/or global war breaks out.
You can't eat your 401k, buy Mountain House foods by the bucket like your racist uncle! Or something.
The US has been through turmoil before. Nearly every country in the world has had similar experiences. Unless you think the concept of capitalism is ending, just prepare for the future the way that's been done for the last 100 years.
Personally I pulled everything out of index funds right before the market tanked. I know trying to time the market is a fool's errand, but it was so obvious that the US was about to shit the bed.
Now if that money to will be worth anything in a few years I have no idea. If we pull through I will reinvest. I'm literally thinking about buying gold, something that I thought was stupid just a short time ago.
I have no illusions about the intrinsic value of gold, but I read that JP Morgan Chase flew $4 billion in gold to their vault in NYC a month ago. Other big banks are doing the same.
Fuck the big banks, don't get me wrong, but they know about risk and hedging.
If your retirement window is 5 years, you're probably very very fucked.
If it's 10 years, as long as you're assuming social security is going to contribute $0, you're probably still pretty fucked.
15 years? Maybe, but at that point that whole global climate change thing we're ignoring is going to start getting more serious, so I'd wager on fucked.
20? Please, you're already in the trenches of the Water Wars, so your retirement plan is machine gun when you go over the top, sorry.
Basically retirement is going to be you dying once your insurance lapses and someone coming along later to pick your corpse up and billing your family for doing so.
(I'd love to be proven wrong, but 'What's the worst most awful thing that could possibly happen' seems to be the right choice these days.)
Every day my investment portfolio is losing between $1000-$10000. I wish he'd just fuck off for a week (well or forever) and not screw with anything, but alas that is his plan.
I cashed out some stock that seemed extra volatile: Ford, some tech stocks, and anything travel related. I opened a CD with the proceeds, and I'll just sit on it for a year until things hopefully calm down. Interest rates on CDs are around 4% if you shop around. It's not the best return, but it's better than getting completely pummelled in the stock market.
All in all that wasn't a ton of money and my 401ks aren't worth touching until things get crazier, so basically I'm just holding the line and trying to save a few profits where possible. Gold is probably a good idea, but I'm not a very sophisticated trader.
I think him simultaneously ruining the stock market and dismantling social security might just jostle people enough to wake up and pay attention.