this post was submitted on 03 Apr 2025
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[–] 4grams@awful.systems 13 points 19 hours ago

Goddamn, been working since the late 90’s. Never figured my social security would pay out so I’ve been diligently following the path I have available. Seems like that is in the process of being stolen now too.

30 years planning for my future, looks gone now.

[–] Lucky_777@lemmy.world 102 points 1 day ago (4 children)

My MAGA dad before the election....

We gotta get Trump back in the White House. My 401k can't take the beating anymore. Wonder what he thinks now? Guess it's the short term pain.

[–] sp3tr4l@lemmy.zip 28 points 1 day ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

The DJIA hit an all time high of about 45000 in Dec 24, not too long aftet the election.

It has been about 4 months since then, and the DJIA has dropped about 10%, to about 40500.

But before that, the average growth of thr DJIA, per year, for the last 10 years, was about 9%.

US median yearly wage is about $50k.

Avg Inflation for the last 10 years is about 3.5% a year.

Same for median wage growth.

Lets say you are 50, and have 150k vested into your 401k, the rough average for a 50 yo with a 401k, and you contribute 10% to your 401k, with a 50% (of your 10%, so 5%) employer match.

Ok then.

Here's what your retirement looks like if these trends all continue.

You have $761k to live off of for 20 years after you retire at 65 and die at 85.

$38k a year.

Ah, but now lets just have a momentary 10% drop in the stock market, but hold everything else the same.

Now you're retiring with $706k, a $55k loss, about $35k a year.

Ok, now lets say your wages only grow at 0.5% a year, the stock market growth for the next 15 years averages 1%, and inflation averages 6%.

Oh, well now your 401k is actually uh, $252k at age 65, $12.6k a year to live off.

If you think that's unrealistic... the stock market didn't top its peak in 1929 untill 1954.

That is a 25 year period with an average stock market growth of zero, over that time period.

The tariffs Trump just enacted average out to around a 22% effective tariff rate.

The Great Depression era Smoot Hawley tariffs were only 19%.

....Oh right, and thats all assuming you don't get laid off.

So that's a lot.of words to say your dad is a fucking imbecile, sorry about that.

My dad is also a MAGAtard, but he's also all the way down the QAnon rabbit hole, builds ghost guns in his garage... I now live many states away from him.

EDIT: It is now less than 24 hrs after I made this post ... and the DJIA is now under 39000.

Thats about a 13% drop from the top, 4 months ago, as opposed to the 10% drop i did all the numbers with yesterday.

Yee fucking haw!

[–] MyBrainHurts@lemmy.ca 49 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Seriously?!? What funds was he holding? Almost all of them exploded during Biden's term! Fox News is a hell of a drug.

[–] LuxSpark@lemmy.cafe 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah, that doesn't even make sense.

[–] sp3tr4l@lemmy.zip 17 points 1 day ago

MAGA cult members are rather infamous for constantly spouting absurd nonsense that could easily be disproven with a moderate application of actual facts and basic logic...

But they don't care.

They are addicted to being aggreived, to blaming non existant or vastly exagerated problems on things that are either entirely or barely tangentially even related to what they are angry about.

My dad is a MAGA moron as well.

I can easily imagine him bitching about his 401k in exactly the same way, then I could get him to pull his actual balances over the last 10 years, showing him he is just factually wrong.

And then he would somehow either praise God or his own cleverness as to being the reason why he is the only person with a 401k who miraculously wasn't affected by this massive stock downturn he knows happened to everyone else, and would then just loop back to 'Biden is destroying everyone's 401ks' within 48 hrs.

They are cult members, their brains are impervious to anything that goes against their constructed cult identity.

[–] hddsx@lemmy.ca 43 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It’s those democrats causing the damn market to drop!

[–] kokolowlander@lemm.ee 2 points 19 hours ago

The term conservative media is using is "globalists".

Easier to whip their voter into panic.

[–] Deceptichum@quokk.au 57 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Americans 401ks are gonna be 40k soon with how grimdark it’s getting.

[–] Spacehooks@reddthat.com 3 points 20 hours ago

If i wasn't convinced he was a gene stealer cultist id say Tzeench is impressed with the work.

[–] MyBrainHurts@lemmy.ca 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] AnIntenseMoist@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago

All the death and stupidity of 40k but without the cool power armor and magic... I hate this timeline

[–] cybervseas@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

It's cool we're all just gonna go ork.

[–] taiyang@lemmy.world 27 points 1 day ago

Good thing we still have social security when we get older...

/s, with a sigh

[–] Asafum@feddit.nl 23 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 19 hours ago

What in the name of AI is that gun?!

It's got a California neutered pistol grip, but wouldn't need one as that's only a legal issue on rifles not pistols, there's no magazine or cylinder so it would have to be a single shot break action, and that safety makes no sense. This is hilarious lmao.

[–] Xanthrax@lemmy.world 46 points 1 day ago (1 children)

What do you mean? Just buy stock while it's at a low price with a small loan of a million dollars from your parents.

[–] saltesc@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

Should be shorting tech and manufacturers.

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 33 points 1 day ago (1 children)

As a GenXer, we've been saying this for 30 years. The Boomers are going to destroy it for everyone.

[–] Wiz@midwest.social 24 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Can confirm as another GenXer. We've always been screwed by Boomers, and we expected the final "fuck you" to come just as we were approaching retirement age. Boomers always pulled up the ladders they used right behind them.

[–] BreadAndThread@lemmy.world 20 points 1 day ago

GenX here. I'm 14 years from retirement, and I've never hated boomers more. They have fucked us at every turn and now they get to die right before the world implodes and once again we get left holding the bag.

[–] werefreeatlast@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago

Can't wait for tomorrow's black Friday. You guys in the banks don't forget your parachute in case of regerts. When you have regerts, just pull the chord!

[–] pzzzt@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago

I pulled out my retirement early to move states. When people told me it was a bad idea I told them that my retirement plan doesn't involve money.

[–] arotrios@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Me pulling what little money I had out of the market right after the election:

[–] MNByChoice@midwest.social 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The trick is timing on getting back in...

[–] Bob_Robertson_IX@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Or getting it into a currency that isn't also dropping in value.

[–] MNByChoice@midwest.social 1 points 6 hours ago

into a currency that isn't also dropping in value.

And then move there.

[–] whoisearth@lemmy.ca 2 points 19 hours ago

Or not being reactionary and just let it ride.

Que sera sera

[–] don@lemm.ee 16 points 1 day ago

While it sucks for most other people, republicans never needed a retirement pension to begin with. Salt of the earth type should be working in the mines to their last breath. What with all that “hard work” ethos of theirs and whatnot.

[–] doingthestuff@lemy.lol 14 points 1 day ago

Lucky me, I'm in my 50s and don't have any kind of savings or investments at all.

[–] cheers_queers@lemm.ee 13 points 1 day ago

Are pensions safer? Ive only had it for 8 years but its a lot of money to just disappear

[–] aviationeast@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago

Choo choo mother fucker!

[–] adam_y@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

"Oh no, your retirement plans" -- the rest of the world, fucked by your orange leader , especially those that seemed particularly fucked in the first place that he decided to double fuck.

[–] root@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Maybe I'm just being optimistic, but if you still have 15/30 years on your retirement horizon, this does not matter much and dollar cost averaging will make up for this in the end? I know people that "lost" their retirement in the 2008 recession because they sold rather than waiting for a recovery.

[–] MyBrainHurts@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 day ago

Maybe I'm just being optimistic, but if you still have 15/30 years on your retirement horizon, this does not matter much

Really depends how things shake out. I mean, stocks were pretty overvalued etc so some correction felt inevitable.

But, if stocks continue to drop or this insane trade policy lasts long enough to actually restructure the economy, well it's likely that individual American turns would have less potential for growth and profit you'd thus expect their stocks to have lower potential growth.

But if you've got a 30 year time horizon, yeah, very little is super disastrous so much as just a tragic missed opportunity.