Anonymous
Post 02/16/2026 17:42     Subject: What do people do when a serious downturn happens 5 years or so before retirement?
Wait 10 years to take your money out so it can earn back what you lost.
Anonymous
Post 02/16/2026 17:38     Subject: Re:What do people do when a serious downturn happens 5 years or so before retirement?
What do people do when a serious downturn happens 5 years or so before retirement?


Cry.

Or work longer. Or save more. Or plan to spend less in retirement.

For most people, retirement should last more than a few years, anyway, and the market will have time to recover.
Anonymous
Post 02/16/2026 17:29     Subject: What do people do when a serious downturn happens 5 years or so before retirement?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:What do people do when a serious downturn happens 5 years or so before retirement?

I feel like people are becoming more and more aggressive investing in equities and even when people "diversify" when closer to retirement they are still heavily invested in equities.

So say you are retiring in 5 years and you don't have the multiple millions that the standard user on this forum has, what steps do take to recover financially?


When you’re that close to retirement, you should have essentially nothing in the stock market.

Unless you’re my FIL. But if you were, you’d be an idiot.


I’m not so sure about that. Unless you are planning to annuitize the money, which is usually a bad deal.

My life expectancy is about 90 years, give or take 5 years. So if I retire at 65, I will have 20-30 years of retirement. If I take it all out of the stock market at 60, then I am missing out on up to 35 years of gains. That’s actually pretty devastating.

If you are 65, have a house paid for, kids launched, and a steady income stream, there is absolutely no good reason to take all of your money out of the stock market if you expect to live beyond 70.


I am the PP that said that our house will be paid off, it is true our kids will be launched as well. And we both have decent fed pensions and maxed SS that will easily cover our expenses. We have a financial planner that is managing our retirement investments.

If all goes according to plan we will have a great retirement and leave something to our kids. If the stock market has a big downturn (meaning “not to plan”) we can weather it and be fine.


You probably won't be affected but future fed with a pension will absolutely with 100% certainty have to take a massive cut on their pension when we finally hit a point of no return with our national debt.
Anonymous
Post 02/16/2026 11:13     Subject: What do people do when a serious downturn happens 5 years or so before retirement?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:What do people do when a serious downturn happens 5 years or so before retirement?

I feel like people are becoming more and more aggressive investing in equities and even when people "diversify" when closer to retirement they are still heavily invested in equities.

So say you are retiring in 5 years and you don't have the multiple millions that the standard user on this forum has, what steps do take to recover financially?


When you’re that close to retirement, you should have essentially nothing in the stock market.

Unless you’re my FIL. But if you were, you’d be an idiot.


I’m not so sure about that. Unless you are planning to annuitize the money, which is usually a bad deal.

My life expectancy is about 90 years, give or take 5 years. So if I retire at 65, I will have 20-30 years of retirement. If I take it all out of the stock market at 60, then I am missing out on up to 35 years of gains. That’s actually pretty devastating.

If you are 65, have a house paid for, kids launched, and a steady income stream, there is absolutely no good reason to take all of your money out of the stock market if you expect to live beyond 70.


I am the PP that said that our house will be paid off, it is true our kids will be launched as well. And we both have decent fed pensions and maxed SS that will easily cover our expenses. We have a financial planner that is managing our retirement investments.

If all goes according to plan we will have a great retirement and leave something to our kids. If the stock market has a big downturn (meaning “not to plan”) we can weather it and be fine.
Anonymous
Post 02/16/2026 09:55     Subject: What do people do when a serious downturn happens 5 years or so before retirement?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:What do people do when a serious downturn happens 5 years or so before retirement?

I feel like people are becoming more and more aggressive investing in equities and even when people "diversify" when closer to retirement they are still heavily invested in equities.

So say you are retiring in 5 years and you don't have the multiple millions that the standard user on this forum has, what steps do take to recover financially?


When you’re that close to retirement, you should have essentially nothing in the stock market.

Unless you’re my FIL. But if you were, you’d be an idiot.


I’m not so sure about that. Unless you are planning to annuitize the money, which is usually a bad deal.

My life expectancy is about 90 years, give or take 5 years. So if I retire at 65, I will have 20-30 years of retirement. If I take it all out of the stock market at 60, then I am missing out on up to 35 years of gains. That’s actually pretty devastating.

If you are 65, have a house paid for, kids launched, and a steady income stream, there is absolutely no good reason to take all of your money out of the stock market if you expect to live beyond 70.


I agree with this. We will also have a good amount of equities in retirement. I don’t think there is a magic one size fits all allocation but for us, being 80/20 will work. Everyone’s portfolio is different but I still want growth beyond the day I retire. Plus, there are studies that ratio isn’t nearly as important as withdrawal rate.
Anonymous
Post 02/16/2026 09:14     Subject: What do people do when a serious downturn happens 5 years or so before retirement?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:What do people do when a serious downturn happens 5 years or so before retirement?

I feel like people are becoming more and more aggressive investing in equities and even when people "diversify" when closer to retirement they are still heavily invested in equities.

So say you are retiring in 5 years and you don't have the multiple millions that the standard user on this forum has, what steps do take to recover financially?


When you’re that close to retirement, you should have essentially nothing in the stock market.

Unless you’re my FIL. But if you were, you’d be an idiot.


I’m not so sure about that. Unless you are planning to annuitize the money, which is usually a bad deal.

My life expectancy is about 90 years, give or take 5 years. So if I retire at 65, I will have 20-30 years of retirement. If I take it all out of the stock market at 60, then I am missing out on up to 35 years of gains. That’s actually pretty devastating.

If you are 65, have a house paid for, kids launched, and a steady income stream, there is absolutely no good reason to take all of your money out of the stock market if you expect to live beyond 70.
Anonymous
Post 02/16/2026 09:00     Subject: What do people do when a serious downturn happens 5 years or so before retirement?
Anonymous wrote:What do you think will happen when Trump doesn't leave office?

Retirees in this country are toast.


Stop with this tired nonsense. We don’t obey in advance. You want to protect your retirement money, have some agency: get out on the streets, go director door for Dems, donate $, register voters, get involved in your community, etc.
Anonymous
Post 02/16/2026 08:13     Subject: What do people do when a serious downturn happens 5 years or so before retirement?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:You should have been moving money out of the market as you approach retirement. People that have lots saved can stay more invested. If you have 5M and the market drops 20%,you are still fine. If you have 1m$ it is a bigger issue.


This. Most people (except this forum) are closer to $1m million saved. Unfortunately these people sometimes don't know when to pull out of equity and as a result they can get badly burned.


This the one area where age index funds can be hedge.


Why ? How is it different from just moving your stocks to bonds and dividend stocks ?
Anonymous
Post 02/16/2026 07:51     Subject: What do people do when a serious downturn happens 5 years or so before retirement?
False. He won’t use some of your money for 1015 or 20 years since it’s money that should be in the market. He said have a 3 to 5 years cash like others said.
Anonymous
Post 02/16/2026 07:46     Subject: What do people do when a serious downturn happens 5 years or so before retirement?
Anonymous wrote:What do people do when a serious downturn happens 5 years or so before retirement?

I feel like people are becoming more and more aggressive investing in equities and even when people "diversify" when closer to retirement they are still heavily invested in equities.

So say you are retiring in 5 years and you don't have the multiple millions that the standard user on this forum has, what steps do take to recover financially?


When you’re that close to retirement, you should have essentially nothing in the stock market.

Unless you’re my FIL. But if you were, you’d be an idiot.
Anonymous
Post 02/16/2026 07:40     Subject: What do people do when a serious downturn happens 5 years or so before retirement?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:You should have been moving money out of the market as you approach retirement. People that have lots saved can stay more invested. If you have 5M and the market drops 20%,you are still fine. If you have 1m$ it is a bigger issue.


This. Most people (except this forum) are closer to $1m million saved. Unfortunately these people sometimes don't know when to pull out of equity and as a result they can get badly burned.


This the one area where age index funds can be hedge.
Anonymous
Post 02/16/2026 07:23     Subject: What do people do when a serious downturn happens 5 years or so before retirement?
What happens when they turnoff the SS spigot and make Medicare untenable so no doctors accept it?
Anonymous
Post 02/15/2026 22:21     Subject: What do people do when a serious downturn happens 5 years or so before retirement?
Anonymous wrote:I am 6ish years out, DH likely 4 years behind me. Fed pensions and SS will cover our expenses if there is a market downturn. House will be paid off before we retire. We are still heavily in equities.





So why are you so heavy into equities?
Anonymous
Post 02/15/2026 22:20     Subject: What do people do when a serious downturn happens 5 years or so before retirement?
Thank karma you moved to capital preservation before that.
Anonymous
Post 02/15/2026 21:59     Subject: What do people do when a serious downturn happens 5 years or so before retirement?
I am 6ish years out, DH likely 4 years behind me. Fed pensions and SS will cover our expenses if there is a market downturn. House will be paid off before we retire. We are still heavily in equities.