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Savage_X t1_j37jemm wrote

I know we all love to hate on the Fed and TPTB, but to me this looks suspiciously like a best case soft landing in the US.

Very little unemployment with moderate wage growth. Enough to encourage and reward workers, but not enough to cause runaway inflation.

On the flip side, we finally have sensible interest rates so you have less money going into non-productive things, inflating asset prices, and causing widespread wealth inequality.

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captainktainer t1_j37q4h8 wrote

Yeah, the doomposting in this thread is ridiculous. This is good news for everyone and a sign that after the stock market and capital correction is over, we might well end up with a more robust economy that's better for workers.

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CertifiedBlackGuy t1_j37sp07 wrote

Honestly I'm looking forward to 2023.

The only debt I'm carrying over is my car loan, travel trailer loan, and student loans. My 401k contributions are going up and I just started a secondary investment vehicle and opened a long-term savings account.

Maybe some day, I'll even be able to own a house :')

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1QAte4 t1_j38aokz wrote

If you are young and have a steady stream of income, this is actually a great time to invest in the stock market. Keep investing in established companies or ETFs and learn to ignore the red. When the stock market rebounds you will see big growth. It just may take a little while. Be patient.

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CertifiedBlackGuy t1_j38czbl wrote

Believe me, I know. Anyone not retiring is getting stocks on sale right now.

I'm 27 and I tell my retirement-age coworkers thanks for transferring the value of their 401k's to mine ;) Some of them took pretty big hits, but that's mostly on them for not shifting the value to more stable, if less growth, forms of investment.

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Savage_X t1_j38rfdb wrote

> shifting the value to more stable, if less growth, forms of investment

That was not really an option when interest rates were at zero. And bonds got hammered in 2022 regardless. Sit in cash while inflation is at 8% was like the "best" horrible investment decision to make for retirees. This was the hangover from the rager party - little you could do to avoid it.

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CertifiedBlackGuy t1_j39aqxy wrote

By the time you're nearing retirement, more of your money should be moved to bonds and other stable investments. This should have been done in the years leading up to retirement, not as a reaction to the economy shitting itself.

If you're nearing retirement age and you're still heavily invested in stocks for the bulk of your 401k or other retirement source, you've done something horribly wrong.

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Savage_X t1_j39cd7h wrote

Point being, it made little difference what you were invested in. Bonds got killed in 2022 because rates changed so fast.

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CertifiedBlackGuy t1_j39dnk2 wrote

But your losses (factoring in inflation on top) would still have been less than if you're still heavily in the stock market.

That's my point. You can't react to a sudden economic crisis, but there are ways to mitigate loss.

Funnily enough, your analogy regarding cash is absolutely wrong in this case. Someone who had their entire 401k moved to cash in 2021 would be doing better than someone who's 401k was mostly stocks.

And a realistic middle ground: a heavily stability oriented portfolio would be somewhere in the middle.

The value of my 401k today is 3 grand less than what I put into it (37k vs 40k), imagine what losses others are feeling that could (and should) have been mitigated by age-based rebalancing.

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Savage_X t1_j39f927 wrote

Bonds lost inflation adjusted 20% last year. Stocks lost inflation adjusted 25%. Its a little better, but retirees had few good options.

> Funnily enough, your analogy regarding cash is absolutely wrong in this case. Someone who had their entire 401k moved to cash in 2021 would be doing better than someone who's 401k was mostly stocks.

Not sure how I was wrong when that is what I said :) Sitting in cash and "only" losing the inflation amount was the best investment. Which is still crappy, and only can be a considered "good" in hindsight.

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CertifiedBlackGuy t1_j39i6ci wrote

Ah, I misinterpreted that, my b¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I cede that level of knowledge of the market to you. I yolo'd my own money in 2020 and made a stupid return, but that was money I was willing to lose. My own non-401k investment set up is far more conservative. I think it’s 40% lower yield, higher stability with some dividend paying stock as a buffer to the remainder growth-oriented stocks and ETFs. I forget the exact make up, but it was set up this way when i made it.

My point was more that I know people who never adjusted for age or retirement goal on their 401k. The values might have been lower, but I imagine it'd still be higher than at present.

But I also recognize the last couple years sucked for everyone. And it's why, in general, I am a strong supporter of stronger social safety nets. The idea of sustaining myself on my 401k sounds like a pipe dream. Especially if the new standard is once in a generation economic crises every other year

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in-game_sext t1_j3b7q0l wrote

Except that there isn't wage growth.

Real wages have been falling and are still falling.

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JhnWyclf t1_j3fc5dc wrote

What the fuck is TPTB?

The internet needs to pump the breaks with their acronyms.

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d-cent t1_j39feg6 wrote

Yup, this is the best way to slow down the inequality rate. It's up to legislators to pass laws to reverse it, which I don't see happening, so in the best case scenario, we stay status quo

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420ipblood t1_j38l7ma wrote

Why do you think rewarding workers has anything to do with the situation? Businesses don't PRINT money. Inflation is a money supply problem. Are you the next conservative talking point, blaming inflation on rising wages ?

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Savage_X t1_j38q2ov wrote

It seems like the labor market is functioning pretty well. Kind of surprising given the scope of fiscal/monetary policy that both Trump and Biden have undertaken in recent years. A pleasant surprise if you will.

I am not trying to attach a political agenda (honestly, not even sure what you are trying to imply).

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