So, like many boomers, I have a 401k that represents basically my entire retirement fund. Unlike many boomers, I am under the age of 50.
I'm sure there's plenty of other millennials, and possibly even younger generations, who have simple, relatively hands-off accounts from jobs where you just diverted a percentage of your paycheck. It's not flashy or trendy, and it's kinda old-school - like the employers we got them from.
With the market being about as stable as a cement mixer full of nitroglycerin, what are we to do?
I've thrown some pocket change into the Meme War on Wall Street, but if this triggers a collapse, there goes my 'retirement' (as though that could ever happen given current trends). What should I and people like me be looking out for?
If you're planning to be self-sufficient I don't even know what the purpose of your question is. If you have food, water, and the means to produce more, what sort of retirement fund do you need? If you have it it's icing, but the cake is definitely being self-sufficient so you don't need it for food and shelter.
What sort of retirement fund did you ancestors in the 1700's have? If they were landowners, it was their farm and their children.
You're right, of course. I guess I'm still somewhat caught in the mode of thought where everything will proceed normally and retirement is a logical end goal financed by discreet savings accumulated over your career.
This is obviously not the case.
It could be. You should consider the possibility that you're wrong and that the rotted out system will be able to survive beyond your lifetime. It's a fair assumption, since the system has been rotted out for a long time and has survived through many lifetimes.
FWIW pretty much all my wealth except my residence is long in stocks. Because I know I'm pessimistic by nature and there's a very real possibility that things aren't nearly as bad as I think they are. OTOH I want to have land, the ability to produce my own food, and the ability to provide for my own defense in case things are as bad as I think they are.
It's taking the ideas of diversification and hedging and extending them beyond simple investments and into life decisions.