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From looking at the forum posts, Most HD readers are calm and it seems not worried about the markets. I really don’t believe that because what has happened in the last week and a half has been unprecedented and there is no end in sight.
Without injecting politics into the discussion how are we HD readers going to handle the next 45 months of this turmoil that is caused by the whims of one man who doesn’t understand economics and no one else in his cabinet no matter how bright and successful somehow agreed to be a yes man. I’m looking for a real discussion about how to protect my retirement savings. There, I said it.
I have no desire to play censor. But when Forum threads veer into politics or the tone becomes uncivil, we’ll be closing them to new comments — and this thread has the ignoble distinction of being the first to get cut off.
Wow, looks like you hit a nerve here Kevin.
It sounds like Kevin is masterful in structuring his personal finances. It also seems to me, though, that this is a very unusual period that threatens both our economy and a free democracy: congress has abrogated its authority to the executive branch, which disregards the Judicial branch. I am afraid we are going to end up like Disneyland’s “Mr Toads Wild Ride” that had a finale of driving onto train tracks–a train crashes into you and you wind up in Hell with demons and the devil!
“Without interjecting politics into the discussion…” and then you spew Democrat Party Talking Points and offer proof positive that you suffer from TDS!
I don’t know you, or your portfolio holdings, or your personal situation, but I do know that your attitude is not one that will serve you well as an investor, or as human being, for that matter.
You stated, “I’m looking for a real discussion about how to protect my retirement savings.” Fair enough. Read on!
Do you have a low cost, broadly diversified portfolio of mutual funds of ETFs? Yes I do.
Is your portfolio divided between Taxable, Tax Deferred, and Tax Free holdings? Yes, mine is.
Do you have at least 18-24 months of cash or cash equivalents on hand? Yes I do.
Are you debt free, including no mortgage payments? Yes, I am.
Do you have dependable transportation? Yes I do.
If you are already retired, is your retirement income guaranteed, by a combination of social security benefits and portfolio income from dividends, or annuity income? Yes, mine is.
If you are still working, are you maximizing your 401k/403b/457 plans? I am retired so, N/A, but I maxed out my 403b and Roth IRA the last 12 of the last 15 years I worked.
Is your retirement income greater than your total retirement expenses? Yes, by 112%.
Do you have a quality health insurance program in place if under age 65, or a Med Sup Policy in place to bolster your Medicare Coverage, if over age 65? Yes I do.
You stated, “Most HD readers are calm and it seems not worried about the markets. I really don’t believe that because what has happened in the last week and a half has been unprecedented and there is no end in sight.”
First of all, your statement is false. Period.
What we are experiencing is not “unprecedented.” Were you not alive in 1973-74…1987…1993-94 … 2000… 2008…2020…2022? We are experiencing a market correction, not unlike others we have experienced a number of number of times in the past 75 years that I have been alive. As a matter of fact, the COVID Crash of 2020 was worse, and you may recall that from the March/April depths of 2020, the year ended with positive gains in the S&P.
In addition, whether you believe it or not, there are, in fact, HD readers who are perfectly calm in the midst of the current economic situation. I know this is true, because I am one of them. Am I happy that my portfolio has an 18-20% decline on paper? Of course not, but when I planned for my retirement and I planned for the worst and hoped for the best.
I retired in January 2024. My first year in retirement saw my portfolio grow by 22%. In 2025, despite the market correction, I am still enjoying my income streams from Social Security and Annuities, which have been unaffected by the market.
As I indicated above, by answering the questions I asked you, if you plan adequately and arrange for income such that market corrections are irritating but not devastating, you can also enjoy calmness in the face of market corrections in your retirement.
One other comment for your consideration. As you disparage the President and his advisors…luckily for you, despite your distain for the programs and processes being implemented, people like you will be allowed to enjoy the benefits that sound government and sound economic policies deliver. And based on 12 of the last 16 years those principles have been absent, and replaced with years of the waste, fraud and abuse, perpetrated by Democrat Control of the federal bureaucracy, you can even be excused for not being able to recognize America First policies when you see them.
Good Luck with your retirement savings and remember Jack Bogle’s advice for troubling times, “Stay The Course!”
I don’t believe the tariffs and the market turmoil and uncertainty they create because they change day to day are sound policy that will benefit this country. I don’t see any mention from this administration about the things they promised they would do on inflation, the national debt or healthcare. All I see is chaos and uncertainty. Let’s talk in 6 months about how this plays out.
And you are free to believe that Nick. This is still America, and we still have freedom of speech and thought here, despite the best efforts of the Democrat Party.
Perhaps, however, if the Democrats in Congress were making positive efforts to assist the President with his agenda, instead of trying to throw up road blocks daily, and filing frivolous lawsuits in every leftwing, radical, jurisdiction in the country, more progress would have already been made.
This is the same playbook from President Trump’s first term. Don’t you remember, lying, corrupt dam Schiff and “Russia, Russia, Russia?” Same playbook, different mantra.
Please defend the Democrats resisting the elimination of waste, fraud and abuse.
Please defend Democrat Congressmen and women, as the rally support for destruction of personal and business property, in the form of Tesla Cars and dealerships.
Please defend biased Judges, demanding that sovereign, foreign leaders respond to their partisan demands to return illegal alien gang member criminals to the US.
Lastly, you want results in 3 months from President Trump, after 4 years of the Democrat Party doing everything in their power to destroy our country by undermining our military, weaponizing our courts, and shoving DEI down our throats? And that’s not even counting the untold damage done to the economy by The Green New Deal and Climate Change lies.
It’s so generous of you allow President Trump six months to show positive results from his agenda and tariffs. I sure he appreciates it.
And finally, remember, YOU introduced politics into this discussion in your OP!
I’ve learned that there are people who use the terms TDS and Democrat Party, use Random Capitalization, and Trumpet falsehoods, and what these people say I take with a grain of salt.
Ignoring judges may be the worst transgression of the rule of law. What happens next, will Trump order the Fed to lower interest rates? Will he telegraph that to certain insider traders?
“If you are already retired, is your retirement income guaranteed, by a combination of social security benefits and portfolio income from dividends, or annuity income?”
This sounds a lot like what I have been preaching and also follow- with the foundation of a pension.
I would suggest that while the market goes up and down, sometimes in crisis, what we see today is unprecedented, intentional and unnecessary. Heck, we were even warned in advance about the “temporary pain”.
RQ..
My plan works for this without pensions, which is the case for the vast majority of Americans.
You said, “ I would suggest that while the market goes up and down, sometimes in crisis, what we see today is unprecedented, intentional and unnecessary. Heck, we were even warned in advance about the “temporary pain”.
I would bet similar comments were made during WWII where rationing was concerned.
The Tariffs imposed by President Trump are not “unprecedented or unnecessary.” They are however, intentional, as they must be, to accomplish their goals of stopping other countries from screwing over the US. As I am sure you know, prior to the introduction of the individual Income Tax, which required a constitutional amendment, since they were forbidden by the founding fathers, the US had tariffs as the primary source of dollars for the US Budget. So “unprecedented and unnecessary?” I think not.
The American people elected Donald Trump. They also gave him both houses of Congress. He campaigned on doing what he is doing now, and he won the election.
Will there be temporary pain? Sure. We are all adults, so let’s just deal with it.
Nick I tend to wonder the same thing. All you have to do is look at the facts, actions do speak louder than words. Just my opinion so please don’t flame me.
China will quickly develop trade relationships with other countries and the USA will be out of the loop
I have been gone from the HD and the news most of the last 2 weeks, so trying to catch up and this was the first post I read. We have not looked at our portfolios or bank accounts. You want to know why? We were in the business of life the past 2 weeks. We were privileged to be in the room with Spouse’s brother, who I have written about here, and his wife, in their most private, intimate moment: when Brother passed from this life. It was a moment of pure Love that we will always remember. And it is really what matters in the end. Not politics, not our portfolios, none of that. There is more to write, and I will as I process things. Everyone, hug your loved ones tonight. Chris
May God Bless you and your family in this time of loss. You are correct in reminding us what really matters.
Well said Chris. Sorry for your losing your brother-in-law.
You are, of course, right!
thanks for the reminder.
Well, Nick, I can play this game too.
The last four years we had the opposite of Trump in many ways. Unfortunately, not in a good way. It’s amazing how quickly his mental decline is forgotten or deliberately ignored.
It left the US worse off and what I really want to know is “who was running the country?”
Russia invading Ukraine, Hamas invading Israel, China getting more likely to invade Taiwan. I could go on.
But Nick is only concerned about his portfolio, while I am concerned with my son who is in the Air Force and may have to fight due to our lack of a functioning president for the last 4 years prior to Trump.
Wow Jim…your down votes are even worse than mine! You have -33…I only got -18.
I guess some folks have a difficult time with the truth.
Being from a military family that spans service members as far back as General Pershing in Mexico, I certainly understand your concerns regarding your son. May God be with him and all our service members.
Nick, both you and Dick Quinn want to persist in negativity. Whether you are for or against the President’s policies you are intensifying the anxiety people are experiencing. Your continual state of faux near panic and degrading opinions of world leaders serves no purpose except to sensationalize and promote your own misguided thoughts; which appear to be prompted by the puerile information you assimilate through too much exposure to “The Onion.”
We are accustomed to Dick Quinn’s peccadilloes and his reliance on his propensity to come a conclusion on most matters, according to the preponderance of his “evidence”
but I am disappointed in your Nick. You said you were happy with Dennis Friedman’s post but you persist. Can’t you just drop it. At this point you seem borderline obsessed with dabbling in provocative and malicious malingering
Economic policies are causing “the anxiety the people are experiencing”. The US is going it alone in the world on trade policy and is alienating close trading partners (bad idea); the US is shifting tariff policies every few days which is causing instability in the trading markets (bad idea); the US is kneecapping the research universities and NIH that produce valuable intellectual property (bad idea); financial reorganization is being led by billionaires in Treasury and Doge that seem to have no conception of retirement financial goals and fears. I suspect our only hope is that this is a transactional program that will realign some industries and alliances, but pulls back before sinking us into an unnecessary recession.
BMORE, You are correct about the anxiety we are currently experiencing but that doesn’t mean we should compound and exacerbate those fears by dismissing any hope for a more productive route to settle this quagmire.
Now is it so hard for us to lighten up? My hopes are your hopes. Whether Democrats or Republicans we are all Americans—known for our resilience and ability to pull together in a crisis.
I think that all of us –Republicans and Democrats — want the US to be economically strong and maintain our standing in the world. Do you think the US doesn’t need allies? I’m wondering how you think our economic allies think/feel about the US now?
Gee Marjorie I had to look up a few words. Am I being insulted? You aren’t using “evidence” as a pejorative are you?😰. The one thing I try hard to do is check and recheck facts. And, I do like to observe people and their behavior..
Dick, My apologies—beneath my normally gentle nature lives a feisty little Irish American girl. You are careful in your research and you bat pretty close to 100 considering the sheer volume of your posts.
I sometimes take exception to some of your ideas and opinions but
Humble Dollar is a forum for us to exchange ideas freely. I do not think, however, politics should be a conduit through which we funnel our judgement on serious matters when we are not in a position to be fully aware of all facts.
I am respectful of your prodigious work for Humble Dollar.
Sorry if I dazzled you with my words.😊
Having never met you, I am nevertheless convinced, you are a woman of “well breeding” as well as someone worth reading.
“Blessed are the Peace Makers.”
I just want policies that make economic sense from both sides. I think that’s too much to wish for.
I used “evidence” as a noun.
“I think this one is too nakedly political and should be deleted……. But from an investing standpoint, all the handwringing seems overwrought. I fear folks will spook themselves — and end up making decisions they later regret.” – Jonathan.
My concerns, exactly. I would hope the readers would realize this isn’t the forum for their political leanings. Fear mongering isn’t very useful, either. I can get both of these at many other sites. Nor is this intended to be entertaining.
I don’t find it useful to wish I had done things differently beyond gleaning any insights. Thinking I can sell high, bail just before a downturn and then re-enter at the bottom is a mirage. I don’t think this has any place for investors. Traders and market-timers, on the other hand are an altogether different breed of risk takers.
There are stock downturns from time to time, historically about every 19 months. They do differ in severity and duration. This is merely the latest one. We all hope it will be short and not too deep. But it will be what it will be.
If one wants to minimize downturn damage to their portfolio the best thing to do is focus on that and pre-position it for the long term. Changes made after the drop, particularly selling, can lock in losses. Buying on the dip may work, but doesn’t always yield the desired result (a quick gain), especially in long and deep downturns. Determining suitable protection requires education and introspection. Many of the articles posted here and Jonathan’s “Get Educated” series can provide this.
I’ll do my best to be prepared for the next downturn using the educational tool available. The current downturn is already out of my hands, which is why I anticipate I will make no changes; if I were dollar cost averaging into the market I might pause. As it is, I’m retired and don’t have new funds to invest. At some point I could deploy cash, but that isn’t a foregone conclusion.
I do know that my portfolio will fall in value from time to time. My personal history has also reinforced what we read; the market will recover and over time so will my portfolio. Over time, the market will reach a new high and if given sufficient time my portfolio may also do so. That is, unless I withdraw and spend significantly. Recovery may require months and at times it will require years. There are factors I can control. These include the allocation of my portfolio, any withdrawals, and my emotions. Emotions can cause me to take actions I will later regret.
We can complain about politicians, the influence of hedge funds and corporate greed. The elephant in the room is inflation, which is why I invest in stocks in the first place. Inflation will erode purchasing power and my cash over time. The only method I know of dealing with this is investing in assets that will grow as the economy grows. But, just as the GDP falls from time to time, so will those assets. Cash can provide ballast and allows one to take withdrawals during periods of loss without selling. I can’t expect cash to keep up with other assets over very long periods.
The best I can do is optimize my portfolio. Doing so should provide long term gains while providing some protection for my savings. At such time as I began withdrawals, I expected the value of my savings to decrease. That’s reasonable. There are tools that indicate if I will have enough money to fund all of my lifetime goals. Leaning how to use them to make a long-term plan is useful.
Having a plan is useful for dealing with adversity. Wisdom tells me that there are my plans, and then there is reality. They are not the same. My plan extends to the year 2050. Reality indicates it is unlikely I’ll be here in 2027. My spouse’s future may extend to 2045, which is why I continue to think and to act for long term benefit.
Norman:
I plead guilty for contributing to “the political” in this thread. I wish I had the well breading displayed by Majorie, and you. I am afraid I allowed my irritation with those suffering from TDS to overtake me. I apologize.
You said, “Having a plan is useful for dealing with adversity. Wisdom tells me that there are my plans, and then there is reality. They are not the same. My plan extends to the year 2050. Reality indicates it is unlikely I’ll be here in 2027. My spouse’s future may extend to 2045, which is why I continue to think and to act for long term benefit.”
I loved this final paragraph of your excellent post. Like you, I doubt I will make it to 2050, my 100th birthday, but my plan is sufficient to get me there, I believe. My bride of 51 years is 4 years younger than me, so our plan will cover her as well.
Although I spent decades in financial planning and almost as long I retirement planning, I have always kept these two sayings in the back of my mind, “Man plans and God laughs.” and “But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’” Luke 12:20
Thank you, Norman, this comment you did was full of common sense. 👍 Chris
Are you also looking for a discussion of how to protect the paycheck you earned last Friday for the work you did for others last week?
To protect savings, simply save in an interest bearing account. Don’t play the market. Inflation always shows up first in the stoke market according to a book from 1973 title The Dying of Money, if I remember correctly. Inflation (an expansion of the supply of money or credit) is always and everywhere a government phenomenon, paraphrasing Milton Friedman. I like my index funds going up the last few years but the majority of voters wanted change. The result is politics on Humble Dollar.
Interesting read on how Canada and other countries are wielding “soft power “ in dealing with this administration’s incoherent tariff policy.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16QXPgKZjZ/?mibextid=wwXIfr
When we talk about investing, investments, asset allocation, etc., a longstanding tool of the basis for pricing investments is the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). And a core tenant of the CAPM is that US Treasuries are “the” risk free investment that the pricing model is based on, which helps derive the risk premium required for other risky assets. While I’ve come to know that there is risk everyone in this world, I think this week, for the first time in a very long time, the rest of the world was asking, “Is the US risk free?” Not looking for anyone to answer that question for me, just answer that question yourself, and I think that will help inform your personal investment decisions.
Unfortunately, I think this was something that needs to be said because it has such an impact on our finances. A major part of the market’s response is a lack of confidence in the administration to lead us through this effort. This even includes concerns about the safety of US treasuries, by both the US and world economies.
These are not easy days for investing and beg caution by us all.
Have you come up with even one way to think about the politics of this and for it to provide you with a way to logically increase rates of return?
Do you think that the MAG7 stocks were in very heady price territory has any effect on this? (attached to this, the market rotation we’re seeing to value and int’l has been expected for years, is this just the excuse that some places needed to go after those “cheap” assets?)
Or is this you saying, I think my risk tolerance is lower than I used to believe it was. (everyone has more risk tolerance when they think things are “good”).
I think the risk tolerance conversation is very valuable.
Jerry’s point is that treasury rates increased when they should have gone down. This was as a result of the world wide fear of the effects of huge increase in tariffs. Normally when worldwide investing fear is high treasury rates would go down as there is a widespread clamoring for them. Instead the Fed had to increase rates to attract buyers. This is what happens to countries whom investors’ have less faith in how the country is managing their finances. Another example of shifting faith is Germany’s treasury rates declined the very same day.
I was aware, and took advantage of the normal rush to treasuries when financial fear grips the investing world when the Russians defaulted on their debt in 1998. We were able to refinance our 30 year mortgage to a 15 with our payments only going up $100/month. We had been paying our mortgage for 5-10 years and our income had increased over that time. My move was non-traditional as most people refinance to have more money to spend, but our move allowed us to pay off the original mortgage 5 years earlier.
Political risk exists (always has), we will always have moments where policy changes create conflict and we will see gyrations and unpredictable behaviors in the markets. (In the past those events were often military, but that’s political too, isn’t it?). How is this different than going off the Gold Standard? How is it different from policy on housing creating a bubble that then caused a massive economic disruption? There’s always policy risk it’s just how we perceive it that changes.
Isn’t it an axiom that we can’t predict what the risk will be that creates unexpected and negative market conditions. Isn’t the corollary to that, given that we can’t predict, know what level of loss you can sustain and prepare for it.
Isn’t this situation exactly what the axioms of investment are meant to help us ignore (endure?)?
I’m trying to understand why this political commentary was allowed to be published on HD. It is one of the first and worst that I’ve ever seen here
But after the twists and turns in the tariff policy and the effect on the stock market, what part of my commentary is political? Is it the sentence that calls out the fact that the tariffs don’t make economic sense or that they are at the whim of one man or even that the policies affect the entire world?
I look at it in terms of liability matching. For my long term money assets, equities, i have made no significant changes. However, due to my concerns about the stability of the bond market i have shorted my duration by moving a significant % of this shorter term “bucket” from a total bond market focus to short and ultra short term UST focus.
Honestly I don’t think we need anymore discussion of what to do. It’s been discussed. This is personal finance, it’s not rocket science. Are our politics a mess in this country? Without a doubt. But I think we’re all in a place where we can more or less choose to tune that out, and perhaps it would be wise to do so.
I do not worry about the size of my portfolio in the short term but focus on the income it produces. As long as the long term fundamentals remain stable and the investments produce the income I need, any variation in the portfolio size over the short term does not concern me.
I understand and support trying to keep politics out of discussions, but the reality is politics, especially now, control much of our lives. What we save, what we can spend, what things cost, taxes, health care, retirement income. There is no real escape. Sorry, I have to agree, right now the whims of one man are setting our direction.
I disagree. Post this on a political site then
As the whims of any president set the direction. That’s been true for ages and is just a fact. If you single Trump out, you single every president out for their time in office. Only fair.
can’t answer that without going beyond HD discussion boundaries, but history shows now is very different.
Today, the S&P 500 is 13% below its all-time high. In 2007-09, the index fell 57%, and in 2020 it tumbled 34%. Today’s political whirlwind may feel “unprecedented” to many folks. But from an investing standpoint, all the handwringing seems overwrought. I fear folks will spook themselves — and end up making decisions they later regret.
It feels unprecedented because it was self inflicted, without sound economic reasoning, chaotic and without any planning. I’d like to know who is responsible for implementing these tariffs from an operational standpoint. Do they have teams of programmers standing by to interpret all truth social posts?
But this time the market drop is the result of the market’s reaction to the unprecedented unforced errors of one person. So this time it is different.
That truly was a decade from hell. Patient investors were eventually rewarded, and there were many who bailed out at the least opportune time. Although I did not vote for that POTUS, I have to say that between the dot com bubble, 9/11, and the melt down he was dealt lousy cards.
I’m betting that patience will win the day this time as well. As I wrote in a previous post, through dumb luck most of our money has been in cash since 4/1 earning 4% interest. I’m pretty sure I will dollar cost average back into the market over the rest of the year. My other choice would be to do nothing and just collect the interest.
That is the answer to the OP’s question.
“Without injecting politics” is a precursor to when someone mentions politics, which he just did.
I separate politics from personal finance. In our case, we have a retirement income plan and safety first strategy and are following it. Implementing the plan is generally proactive and we plan no changes. Currently, we are only “reacting” to the stock market by doing rebalancing and partial Roth conversions which are 2 of the 6 potential to-do’s mentioned in Jonathan’s post. I have peace of mind due to the our plan, relatively conservative asset allocation and support from our financial planner.
Could you please share the title of Jonathan’s post that you mentioned? I must have missed it, but would like to read it. Thanks.
It’s 5:47 a.m. ET and I’m just sitting down in front of my laptop with a cup of coffee — and I’m looking at Nick’s thread. I appreciate his past comments on the site, but I think this one is too nakedly political and should be deleted. Do others agree, or should I let this thread continue?
Agree, I value HD for its focus on personal finance as it relates to retirement as well as some of the non-financial topics that are posted. It seems like there is no where to hide from the politics. I think we can talk about policies that affect retirement without pushing political agendas. I know that for me, I will be less interested in following HD if it turns into just another place for political arguments.
The political side only has meaning at HD if there’s some kind of actionable information. Is there a long term trend that might change investment behavior?
I don’t think so. Strong suspicion the politics is just a gripe session with no real benefit. But I’m open to something that goes beyond, I found out I’m not as risk tolerant as I thought so I have to hold more fixed income, more cash.
You should delete it. The OP has posted similar provocations in the past and will probably continue to do so until he’s stopped.
From numerous comments, not just on HD but in conversations elsewhere, many think the reasons for current market turmoil are unique, and therefore some new strategy to cope is warranted. In my opinion, I think the time- honored principles of diversification, asset allocation and rebalancing are the correct response.
It could be a good time for people to think about their actual risk tolerance.
Agree.
I believe in the concept of free will. There are people that will not be able to help themselves from going into politics on this issue and others that can make constructive comments without entering the danger zone. I would leave the discussion on the board.
Another thought, Jonathan. What would the publishers and editors of your former employer done in this situation?
The WSJ has an editorial page where folks pontificate about matters political, leaving most other issues — including personal finance — for the news pages. That church-state separation doesn’t exist here or on most other sites, alas.
it may be helpful to make comparisons with the past in order to get some insight on where we are heading financially. Here is the generative AI comparison of the Smoot Hawley tariff war and similarities to our current trade war:
The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 and the current trade war share similarities in their motivations, the reactions of other countries, and the potential for negative economic consequences. Both involve tariffs raised on foreign goods, leading to retaliatory measures from trading partners, and economists express concerns about the potential for a global trade war that could harm economies. [1, 2, 3]
Here’s a more detailed comparison:
Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act (1930): [2, 4]
Current Trade War: [3, 3, 7, 7]
Similarities: [2]
Generative AI is experimental.
[1] https://san.com/cc/what-is-the-smoot-hawley-tariff-act-the-1930-tariffs-didnt-age-well/
[2] https://www.rabobank.com/knowledge/d011321764-trade-wars-then-and-now-smoot-hawley-all-over-again
[3] https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/05/how-smoot-hawley-tariff-sparked-the-mother-of-all-trade-wars.html
[4] https://www.britannica.com/topic/Smoot-Hawley-Tariff-Act
[5] https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/news/story/smoot-hawley-tariffs-trump-116381286
[6] https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/smoot-hawley-tariff-act.asp
[7] https://www.gmfus.org/news/trump-tariffs-their-impact-and-us-public-opinion
[8] https://brainly.com/question/56844471?source=new+history+questions
[9] https://www.trtworld.com/opinion/advantage-china-why-trumps-tariff-gamble-could-backfire-on-the-us-18261628
[10] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoot%E2%80%93Hawley_Tariff_Act
[11] https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2025/04/07/smoot-hawley-trump-tariffs/82977177007/
1930? Thank you. I had forgotten Smoot-Hawley was AFTER the the stock market crash.
This is an excellent and simple description of how tariffs and the response to them was handled in the past. I often look to history and read memoirs about how the events of history affect people in their everyday lives. Knowing that somehow generations survived in spite of hard times for the middle class gives me comfort and helps me to zone out.
An edit removing one sentence from Nick’s post would do the trick here. The main issue being raised is whether this community is worried. I for one, am worried.
Jonathan, he is asking a very relevant question, but in a way that injects politics into the discussion. Regardless of how readers feel about the tariffs, everyone should be able to agree that the president’s actions are effecting the market. Perhaps if Nick would edit his third sentence to remove his opinion of the president? His question about protecting assets is valid.
I don’t mean the OP any disrepect but I don’t like partisanship here. I get it that people want other people in government to be involved in our personal finances. So, it’s hard to escape politics. But can’t we avoid partisanship?
How did readers feel about lumber tariffs two men imposed?
Back in June 6, 2022 USA Today reporter Terry Collins reported on lumber prices. Collins quoted Jonathan Paine of the National Lumber Material and Dealers Association, “The Biden Administration last year doubled tariffs on Canadian Lumber imports
from 9% to 17.9%.”
Has the OP mentions “one man” and tariffs but has the OP not seen the videos one woman supporting tariffs not so long ago?
I’m thinking the first casualty of partisanship is truth.
Good solution
This is an extraordinary period: it is impossible to ignore the massive gyrations in markets associated with a trade war. My retirement savings dropped 10% in two weeks and then regained 4% overnight. I can’t see how a financial site can ignore this? Maybe we can just focus on how to survive the currents, eg most of us are just sitting tight with diversified investments and some stable sources of income. I don’t think it is unreasonable to discuss things like how to get ready to take advantage of a possible upcoming recession or the retirement math on putting off retirement for a year?
It’s only a “loss” if you cash out. That thinking has been consistent through the eons.
Comments like this are blatantly biased, and serve no purpose, other than tantalize others to further heights of disrespect for the opinions of others— And create hostility..
keep up your high standards, Jonathan. Thank you.
Agreed. And I’m an example of falling for it, foolishly thinking critical logic would help make the world – or at least HD – a better place LOL
I need to remember that I don’t have to attend every partisan, political argument I’m invited to attend.
“I’m looking for a real discussion about how to protect my retirement savings.”…….”caused by the whims of one man who doesn’t understand economics…” I won’t respond to politically motivated questions.
Many have suggested that the primary cause of recent market turmoil is political. Some say the market was overdue for a correction and just needed a spark to set it in motion. Many are unsure what they should do now.
While the primary cause of the extreme market volatility seen today may be different from past events, I still advocate the same defensive strategy. That is to say, focus on asset allocation. It is how we respond to forces beyond our control. Bernstein wrote about risk tolerance, the capacity to take on risk, and whether there is need to take on risk. My risk tolerance is dynamic. It has changed with time. I am retired and take annual distributions. My portfolio is 50% stocks for future growth and 50% in treasury investments, sufficient to fund 15+ years. If I were younger, and retirement was in the far- off future, I would keep buying stocks via dollar cost averaging.
My allocation allows me to sleep. More specifically, I find it is easier to resist any urge to make investment changes which I might regret.
