My $3 Million Investment Shrunk When the Market Crashed and Now I’m Rethinking Retirement Entirely

There’s a reason investing in stocks isn’t for everyone.

The market can be extremely fickle and react harshly to economic news. So when something like a tariff announcements happens, it can be enough to send your portfolio on a downward spiral.

Like many other people, that seems to be what happened to this Reddit poster in April.

The poster said he had $3 million invested, which would’ve been enough to cover expenses in retirement. Instead, his portfolio lost 10% of its value quickly. And worse yet, the poster doesn’t know if more pain is in store.

So now, he’s worried about retirement. And that’s understandable.

Even though the market has, as of this writing, recovered some of its losses from April, the remainder of the year could be rocky.

The tariff issue is by no means resolved. And other economic factors could deal investors’ portfolios an even harsher blow.

So should the poster give up on retirement? Definitely not. But they may need to take a different approach.

Should savers be worried about stock market volatility?

If you’ve been investing for a long time, you’re probably aware that stock market turbulence is nothing new. For this reason, recent stock market events shouldn’t spook you too badly or prompt you to pull your money out of your investments in a panic.

The reality is that just as the stock market has a tendency to be volatile, it also has a tendency to recover from downturns over time. If you’re in the middle of your retirement savings window, don’t bail on stocks. You need that growth in your portfolio to meet your savings goals.

Just make sure to diversify so you’re not too heavily invested in any one sector of the market. Aside from that, there’s not much you can do but take a deep breath during the rocky times and be happy you stuck with stocks during the good times.

How to unload risk ahead of retirement

The person in the post above has embraced the FIRE movement, which means they may be looking to live off of their portfolio starting at an earlier age than the typical worker. That’s important, because there’s a key difference in the approach some FIRE proponents take to retirement.

FIRE folks set a savings target to work toward rather than a specific retirement age. But that means that a market event like what just happened can easily upend plans.

It’s not a bad thing for the poster to be reconsidering their retirement plans. And if they’re serious about retiring very soon, they may want to unload some risk in their portfolio.

Generally speaking, when you’re about to retire, it’s a good idea to scale back on stocks and replace some of those holdings with safer investments, like bonds. But very early retirees are often forced to maintain a larger stock position because they need the growth and income in their portfolios. This means they inherently take on more risk.

The poster shouldn’t rethink retirement, but they may want to rethink a very early retirement. If this bout of volatility has them rattled, they could be signing up for years of this. That’s not necessarily great for their mental health.

The poster may also want to try talking to a qualified financial advisor for guidance. An advisor can help set up a portfolio that lends to the poster’s goals without exposing them to too much unnecessary risk.

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