Michael Montgomery used to check the balance on his retirement account once a week and smile.
But lately, not wanting to get upset and question if he could retire in a few years, there was only one solution. “I’m not looking,” says the 66-year-old professor from Huntington Woods, Mich.
As the White House simultaneously injects turmoil into financial markets with its trade war and dismisses fears of a downturn, retired and near-retired Americans are anxiously looking on, worried about outliving their savings or having to put off entries on their bucket lists.
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Keeping logged off his account has made Montgomery’s days less worrisome. He and his wife adjusted their portfolio after Election Day, including moving more money into bonds. But he’s not sure what more he can do if the entire world economy can be affected by Washington’s decisions.
Many experts warned U.S. stocks were overpriced and due for a correction even before President Donald Trump reclaimed the Oval Office. But a historic blanket of tariffs have injected new uncertainty into the market.
Though stocks rallied this week, the S&P 500 is down 10 per cent from an all-time high reached in February. Losses in the Nasdaq and among small-cap stocks are steeper. Even bonds and the U.S. dollar have been volatile. Many economists are warning of a possible recession.
Earlier this month, the Cboe Volatility Index, considered a ‘fear gauge’ of investor pessimism, reached its highest level in five years. The index, known as VIX, has since retreated but is still in territory reflecting fearful investors. Another measure of market sentiment, the Cboe S&P 500 left tail volatility index, which tracks investor worry about so-called ‘black swan’ events such as the 2008 housing crash that spurred the Great Recession, likewise has backed off from highs but remains elevated.
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Trump has urged people to “be cool” in assessing the impact of tariffs on their investments. Asked about his own savings earlier this month, he chuckled and replied: “I haven’t checked my 401(k).”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, meantime, brushed off the possibility that some might need to delay retiring, saying people “don’t look at the day-to-day fluctuations of what’s happening.”
Americans’ retirement savings totalled about $44 trillion at the end of 2024, according to the Investment Company Institute. The composition of those savings has shifted increasingly toward stocks in the last couple decades as the 401(k) has become employers’ typical offering.
Among fund giant Vanguard’s nearly five million accounts, for example, the average investor puts three-quarters of their savings in stocks. Even older investors are still heavily steeped in equities: people aged 55 to 64 have 64 per cent in stocks at Vanguard, while those aged 65 and older have 49 per cent in stocks.
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With that exposure, financial advisers are getting an influx of calls amid the recent market uncertainty.
Tj Binkowski, who runs Narrow Road Financial Planning in Clarksville, Tenn., says some clients find themselves obsessively checking their accounts and feel the emotional strain of worrying about their money. A downturn, he says, hits an older investor much differently.
“When you’re retired, paper losses aren’t just on paper anymore,” he says “You’re locking them in every month that you take money out.”
That angst is more common among older adults than younger people. An April poll by the Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found slightly fewer than half of U.S. adults aged 45 and older said their retirement savings are a “major” source of stress for them right now, compared to about a third of younger people. Older Americans were also more likely to say they’re stressed about the stock market.