61% of Investors Are Betting Their Retirement on an Unlikely Future
Most Americans are making a big mistake with their investments. According to a recent study from TIAA, just 39% of Americans believe their investments are well protected from stock market downturns and volatility. This figure is shocking, especially in light of the fact the survey was taken during the bumpy ride the market has been on since March.
When the coronavirus first arrived in full force in the U.S., retirement and other household accounts lost $14.2 trillion in value. While the market rally over the following months erased virtually all of those losses, this recovery was an unusually quick one. The fact that 61% of Americans lived through this market turbulence so recently and still haven't taken steps to protect themselves from downturns suggests a key financial lesson wasn't learned.
The reality is that market crashes can come on suddenly, they will eventually happen, and you need to be prepared for them. And it doesn't take a global pandemic for the market to experience a sudden crash. In fact, market corrections and recoveries are a natural part of economic cycles. While those who started investing in the 2010s have seen a decade of unusual stability, if you're banking on this continuing indefinitely, you're putting your portfolio at serious risk.
Source Fool.com
