Boomers, Getting Ready to Retire? Jamie Dimon Has Some Must Hear Advice

For nearly two decades, Jamie Dimon has been the CEO of JP Morgan Chase, the largest bank in the US and one of the largest in the world. Raised in Queens, NY like President Trump, Dimon is the grandson of Greek immigrants, and has a long history in the financial industry, including stints with American Express, Smith Barney, Citigroup, and Bank One, before joining JP Morgan as COO in 2004. 

During his career, Dimon has dealt with clients from individual retail types to multinational corporations. He has navigated through bull and bear markets, the dotcom bubble, the 2008 subprime mortgage banking meltdown, the pandemic, and the current climate of recovery from Bidenomics under President Trump. 

As a result, Dimon’s experience has given him a fount of wisdom about life and its application to finances from which people of all ages can benefit. Retirees may especially find some of the tips to be helpful, since they address some assumptions and habits that are especially prevalent among Baby Boomers and those less immersed in the cyber world. The following quotes from Jamie Dimon contain useful life advice tips on multiple levels:

“Problems don’t age well.”

Dimon has amassed an enviable string of winning moves during his nearly 20 years at the helm of JP Morgan Chase. However, he has also learned hard lessons about letting problems go unresolved, only to get worse:

• JP Morgan Chase needed $25 billion under TARP to keep afloat during the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis. Better hedging strategies or other measures could have helped JP Morgan Chase have less risk exposure to the sector before the bottom fell out; thus obviating the need for TARP funds
• The deadline for Basel 3 compliance compelled Dimon to address long-standing balance sheet and off-balance sheet problems that risked locking JP Morgan Chase out of international markets. Failing to deal with this deadline earlier forced Dimon and Bank of America’s Brian Moynihan to lobby the Federal Reserve for an extension date.
• Illegal debanking of religious and politically conservative clients by JP Morgan Chase and its peers over the past 4 years is now causing a backlash, prompted by an admonishment from President Trump at the WEF in Davos this past January.  JP Morgan Chase recently announced it had overhauled its code of conduct to ensure this would not be repeated in the future. 

From a personal perspective, Dimon has learned to swiftly deal with health issues, such as aortic dissection and throat cancer, which allowed for faster recovery and a return to work. 

For those looking at retirement or already in it, some of the problems that should not be put off include:

• Outstanding debt overhangs that are draining funds unnecessarily. 
• Unheeded warning signs of potential health issues.
• Financial planning issues regarding one’s estate and will should be handled while one is still of sound mind and body.

Kicking the can on any of these problems can snowball into major crises if a disability from illness or accident renders one incapacitated. 

“No one can forecast the economy with certainty.”

With hundreds of market analysts on his payroll, Jamie Dimon knows full well the level of accuracy their market prognostications are able to achieve, as well as what their margin for error is. As such, he believes in contingencies, and retirees would do well to take basic precautionary measures for their own retirement, including:

• Set up an emergency fund if they do not already have one.
• Some diversification of invested assets, such as ETFs for bond income, REIT income, and equity dividend income.
• If the retiree is using a smartphone or computer on a regular basis, establishing alerts for any items in the portfolio that can prompt warnings for contingency steps is a prudent strategy to deploy.

“Just because you have a good hand today doesn’t mean it’s good tomorrow. And some of the things we’re doing may become very disadvantageous at some point.”

It can be very tempting to enter retirement with an attitude towards letting the retirement portfolio go on autopilot, since the nest egg has done so well in the market over the past several years. However, such complacency would be unwise, and potentially deleterious. 

Bill Bengen, the financial advisor responsible for the 4% withdrawal rule for retirees, corrected himself some years later. He admitted that his assumptions were based on an abnormally strong market and low inflation in the 1960s leading up to his 4% calculation figure. In retrospect, he thought that a 7% withdrawal rate might be more reflective of a longer historical market and inflation cycle. 

Retirees could benefit from a quarterly, if not monthly review of a retirement nest egg for any market changes that can affect the value or income generation properties of the contained assets.  What worked great in the past might not be such a good thing to have going forward. 

“You can never have equal outcomes, but you can have equal opportunity.”

One of the hit or miss traps that many DIY investors fall into is to think that just copying someone else’s successful trades or purchases will equate to long term similar results. While short term success is more likely, unless one sells at the exact time as the successful role model, the emulator will inevitably get caught holding too long. The advantage of research and knowledge on the part of the role model cannot be dismissed. 

Moral of the story: ultimately, doing one’s own research and taking their own responsibility for investment decisions, instead of lazily copying someone else in a blindly uninformed fashion, is the better road to long term success. Everyone has the opportunity to see the same information and make their own conclusions. 

“We don’t have a divine right to success.”

Americans often take the financial abundance of their nation for granted, unaware of the benefits and advantages that the geographic isolation of the US and its free market system create for its inhabitants. Keenly cognizant of the havoc and destruction caused by wars and the overly bureaucratic restrictions that damper entrepreneurism in dictatorships and socialist governments, Dimon has needed to prepare contingencies for when JP Morgan Chase is subjected to sanctions and penalties from other nations. 

He has also issued warnings about international credit risk. In The Economic Times, Dimon was cited in October 2024: Dimon warned that conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East could escalate into a global war, stating, “World War III has already begun.” He emphasized the coordinated efforts of adversaries like Russia, China, and Iran in fueling these conflicts. As the risk of a global conflict rises, Dimon’s cautionary words signal growing concern over the potential for a wider war.

Retirees who decide to relocate abroad to other nations during their golden years need to pay heed to local and international news. The isolation of life in the US can breed a false sense of security and lack of caution in other nations, some of which may harbor communities with grudges against Americans. 

Additionally, President Trump’s policies of cutting off the parasitic leeching of hundreds of billions of American taxpayer dollars overseas, with substantial amounts going to hostile terrorist groups will likely cause repercussions from groups who want to keep the cash spigots open. Keeping vigilant on events that can affect a retirement nest egg’s assets is advisable.  The recent vandalism attacks on Tesla charging stations are just one example. 

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