What do people do when a serious downturn happens 5 years or so before retirement?

[Anonymous]

Most of my retirement money is in a target date fund. I *hope* that this is mitigating the risk somewhat? Can anyone weigh in?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What happens when they turnoff the SS spigot and make Medicare untenable so no doctors accept it?

Most Americans will starve to death, be homeless and die without medical care.

There will be massive riots before this happens. We have so many people relying on these programs for mere survival that our streets will be inundated with elderly beggars like 3rd world and our homeless tent encampments will grow into full fledged shanty towns as people will simply have nowhere to live being unable to afford their own paid off houses or rent control apartments and having no family able to take them in.

I'm from a third world country in Africa. We don't have safety nets. Our streets are indeed filled with beggars. However, we don't have riots and we are not in a civil war. People just die if they are sick and can't afford care or if they are starving and can't afford food

I'm impressed how the average American demands a basic standard of living. Anything short of that they think a riot will happen.

I do have sympathy for the poor, but not not really if you want my honest opinion. Coming from a country where the government is not there to help you forces you to find ways to survive.

[Anonymous]

We will never have a downturn like 2008, 1929, 1999 or whatever.

Rest assured folks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Work longer. That's the answer.

Ageism

No one likes to hire older workers, they say, outside of execs and highly specialized people. Most people are not that. So then what?

You stay at the job you already have.

That isn’t always an option - at 53 my entire field was vaporized by Trump and Elon Musk (USAID funded public health) and now I and my thousands of former colleagues are competing for the small pool of public health jobs still out there. I’m not going to lose my house or go hungry, but the reality is my retirement is not going to be what I had planned unless I can find another full time job pretty soon.

So you’ll be working longer, then. Which was my first answer.

Listen: I don’t LIKE these answers. But they are what the answers are. What do people do? They work longer, keeping the jobs they have when they can.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most of my retirement money is in a target date fund. I *hope* that this is mitigating the risk somewhat? Can anyone weigh in?

Following.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What happens when they turnoff the SS spigot and make Medicare untenable so no doctors accept it?

Most Americans will starve to death, be homeless and die without medical care.

There will be massive riots before this happens. We have so many people relying on these programs for mere survival that our streets will be inundated with elderly beggars like 3rd world and our homeless tent encampments will grow into full fledged shanty towns as people will simply have nowhere to live being unable to afford their own paid off houses or rent control apartments and having no family able to take them in.

I'm from a third world country in Africa. We don't have safety nets. Our streets are indeed filled with beggars. However, we don't have riots and we are not in a civil war. People just die if they are sick and can't afford care or if they are starving and can't afford food

I'm impressed how the average American demands a basic standard of living. Anything short of that they think a riot will happen.

This. It's not like this has never been the case - recall Hoovervilles and the impoverished hollers of Appalachia. For most of history most people have been dirt poor. We can easily slip back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What happens when they turnoff the SS spigot and make Medicare untenable so no doctors accept it?

Most Americans will starve to death, be homeless and die without medical care.

There will be massive riots before this happens. We have so many people relying on these programs for mere survival that our streets will be inundated with elderly beggars like 3rd world and our homeless tent encampments will grow into full fledged shanty towns as people will simply have nowhere to live being unable to afford their own paid off houses or rent control apartments and having no family able to take them in.

I'm from a third world country in Africa. We don't have safety nets. Our streets are indeed filled with beggars. However, we don't have riots and we are not in a civil war. People just die if they are sick and can't afford care or if they are starving and can't afford food

I'm impressed how the average American demands a basic standard of living. Anything short of that they think a riot will happen.

I do have sympathy for the poor, but not not really if you want my honest opinion. Coming from a country where the government is not there to help you forces you to find ways to survive.

You should be

There are a lot of us. Way more than any country in Africa and we've given lots to this country, way more than some ultra rich

We know this country has the money. Just have to make sure it doesn't spend $500 billion MORE on military

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/02/21/trump-hegseth-budget-military/

[Anonymous]

Do nothing! If you are retiring at 65-67, you must remember that you likely have at least 20years plus of non-income years ahead of you. Take the short term pain and continue in the market for the next few decades.

[Anonymous]

We are close to retirement and have been rebalancing (due to equities growth) by investing more in bonds/bond funds. Also have to think long term though - we will (hopefully) be retired for many years. we still need growth to drive value for the later years.

If the market tanked in the next few years I would just keep working for a while. My max age is 70 though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Work longer. That's the answer.

Ageism

No one likes to hire older workers, they say, outside of execs and highly specialized people. Most people are not that. So then what?

You stay at the job you already have.

That isn’t always an option - at 53 my entire field was vaporized by Trump and Elon Musk (USAID funded public health) and now I and my thousands of former colleagues are competing for the small pool of public health jobs still out there. I’m not going to lose my house or go hungry, but the reality is my retirement is not going to be what I had planned unless I can find another full time job pretty soon.

So you’ll be working longer, then. Which was my first answer.

Listen: I don’t LIKE these answers. But they are what the answers are. What do people do? They work longer, keeping the jobs they have when they can.

What if they can't? People start developing health issues in late middle age, not everyone can keep the same level of productivity or even work full time into their elderly years. And the whole unemployment thing, which is going to hit a lot of people very hard, if not already. Employers had never been eager to recruit anyone over 50 or anyone who looks like they may be in mid 50s or older. Having minimum wage job part time (many of them are physically intense) isn't going to support you without other funds from SS, pensions, passive income, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What happens when they turnoff the SS spigot and make Medicare untenable so no doctors accept it?

Most Americans will starve to death, be homeless and die without medical care.

There will be massive riots before this happens. We have so many people relying on these programs for mere survival that our streets will be inundated with elderly beggars like 3rd world and our homeless tent encampments will grow into full fledged shanty towns as people will simply have nowhere to live being unable to afford their own paid off houses or rent control apartments and having no family able to take them in.

I'm from a third world country in Africa. We don't have safety nets. Our streets are indeed filled with beggars. However, we don't have riots and we are not in a civil war. People just die if they are sick and can't afford care or if they are starving and can't afford food

I'm impressed how the average American demands a basic standard of living. Anything short of that they think a riot will happen.

I do have sympathy for the poor, but not not really if you want my honest opinion. Coming from a country where the government is not there to help you forces you to find ways to survive.

Yes, the riot will happen, and we do demand basic standards of living because we are first world. It is also the reason you are here and not back in your home country, isn't it? We don't want our country to become 3rd world and will fight for it, if this idea bothers you somehow, then you are in the wrong place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What happens when they turnoff the SS spigot and make Medicare untenable so no doctors accept it?

Most Americans will starve to death, be homeless and die without medical care.

There will be massive riots before this happens. We have so many people relying on these programs for mere survival that our streets will be inundated with elderly beggars like 3rd world and our homeless tent encampments will grow into full fledged shanty towns as people will simply have nowhere to live being unable to afford their own paid off houses or rent control apartments and having no family able to take them in.

I'm from a third world country in Africa. We don't have safety nets. Our streets are indeed filled with beggars. However, we don't have riots and we are not in a civil war. People just die if they are sick and can't afford care or if they are starving and can't afford food

I'm impressed how the average American demands a basic standard of living. Anything short of that they think a riot will happen.

I do have sympathy for the poor, but not not really if you want my honest opinion. Coming from a country where the government is not there to help you forces you to find ways to survive.

You should be

There are a lot of us. Way more than any country in Africa and we've given lots to this country, way more than some ultra rich

We know this country has the money. Just have to make sure it doesn't spend $500 billion MORE on military

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/02/21/trump-hegseth-budget-military/

+100

idk, but I found the PP triggering in a few aspects. There are a lot of people in the USA working hard to survive already, we have rural poverty, urban blight, homelessness and our own "shanty towns" e.g. skid row. No, government isn't taking care of everyone And it's not the point of this conversation. It's about people who had done everything they could to provide for their lives in retirement and our system that forced us to contribute to the social safety net that people expect to exist for them in their old age because this is by design. Sudden system breakdown isn't the same as "this is the way of 3rd world and people learn to survive or die", its effect alone would be similar to the effects of major social upheavals or revolutions in an of itself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most of my retirement money is in a target date fund. I *hope* that this is mitigating the risk somewhat? Can anyone weigh in?

It's mitigating the risk relative to the percentage of bonds in your target date fund. But if you have too high of an allocation to bonds, you still run the risk of running out of money due to lower returns.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What happens when they turnoff the SS spigot and make Medicare untenable so no doctors accept it?

Most Americans will starve to death, be homeless and die without medical care.

There will be massive riots before this happens. We have so many people relying on these programs for mere survival that our streets will be inundated with elderly beggars like 3rd world and our homeless tent encampments will grow into full fledged shanty towns as people will simply have nowhere to live being unable to afford their own paid off houses or rent control apartments and having no family able to take them in.

I'm from a third world country in Africa. We don't have safety nets. Our streets are indeed filled with beggars. However, we don't have riots and we are not in a civil war. People just die if they are sick and can't afford care or if they are starving and can't afford food

I'm impressed how the average American demands a basic standard of living. Anything short of that they think a riot will happen.

I do have sympathy for the poor, but not not really if you want my honest opinion. Coming from a country where the government is not there to help you forces you to find ways to survive.

Yes, the riot will happen, and we do demand basic standards of living because we are first world. It is also the reason you are here and not back in your home country, isn't it? We don't want our country to become 3rd world and will fight for it, if this idea bothers you somehow, then you are in the wrong place.

+1

It's ironic and sad that my fellow African seems to want the average American to "toughen up and deal". Yet, we are here because... we could not deal in our countries of origin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of my retirement money is in a target date fund. I *hope* that this is mitigating the risk somewhat? Can anyone weigh in?

It's mitigating the risk relative to the percentage of bonds in your target date fund. But if you have too high of an allocation to bonds, you still run the risk of running out of money due to lower returns.

Not if you adjust your withdrawal rates to account for this. If withdrawing at 3.5% with a mostly indexed fund portfolio all bur guarantees you don't run out of money, perhaps withdrawing at say, 2% would do same if your money is mostly bonds.