12 women got together on April 15 to talk about withdrawal strategies in retirement, but our planned topic was replaced by a discussion about tariffs and volatile markets. We are all very concerned and find it disconcerting to have our assets decline when we are no longer adding to them. It felt good to have this discussion with our peers.
Some of our key discussion points:
We discussed tariffs including what they are and how they were applied.
Cyndy suggested "stay the course", but wants to modify that to say "if you make a change, it should be a conscious decision to change your allocation which is based on a review of what allocation is appropriate for you, not a reaction to what is happening in the market." Example: If you were 60% stocks/40% fixed and that is making you uncomfortable and is more risk than you need to take to achieve your goals for your money, adjust. Don't make an adjustment based on panic.
There have been many market downturns in the past 100 years. Every volatile market/market downturn is unique and all have recovered and the market has gone higher. (Caveat: somebody asked about the Great Depression where many people lost their life savings. The market lost 89%, but did come back. There have been many oversights put in place in the past 100 years and most will not be rolled back.)
This demonstrates why one needs to be diversified.
Kathleen referenced a podcast with Ezra Klein and Tom Friedman. You can find it here
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tom-friedman-thinks-were-getting-china-dangerously-wrong/id1548604447?i=1000703572925
Base your allocation decision and risk decision on your goals for your money and your ability to sleep at night
Try to have enough cash that you don't need to sell when the market is down. 2-5 years is often suggested and is what is meant by short term. It doesn't have to be actual cash, but could be a CD ladder where you have a fixed return and money is becoming available on a regular basis as the CDs mature.
On Tuesday, May 20, at 6:30-8:00 PM via zoom, chapter member, Pam Egan, is going to join us to talk about Scams/Fraud/Identify theft.
We talked briefly about a summer get together IN PERSON with a light topic of how to save money when buying stuff/how not to buy stuff. We think we might take a couple months off.
All are welcome to join us on zoom. Join the group or contact Cyndy using the info above.