My 401K--in the Trump Era--advice?

In My Humble Opinion
21

trump aint gonna kill Social Security. It is the third rail, and if he proposes it to the House, it will go no-where. Mind you, the GOP has talked about investing some of the funds in mutual funds.

Some materials- Google AI says-
"The United States exports a variety of raw materials, including:

  • Petroleum: Refined petroleum, crude petroleum, petroleum gas, and petroleum oils
  • Natural gas: Liquefied natural gas (LNG) and other petroleum gases
  • Minerals: Gold, iron ore, molybdenum concentrates, industrial sand and gravel, selenium, soda ash, titanium dioxide pigment, wollastonite, and zeolites
  • Other: Monolithic integrated circuits, digital

The United States is the world’s second-largest exporter, with exports totaling $1.95 trillion in 2022. The top destinations for US exports are: Canada ($308B), Mexico ($294B), China ($151B), Japan ($79.5B), and United Kingdom ($75.4B)."

Yep. But Social Security will need a bail out soon, and the most logical thing is to get rid of the cap on salaries. That would be a GOP no-no.

22

request a Summary Plan Description (“SPD”) from your 401k administrator. they are required by law to provide it. It may even be available on your 401k website if you look around. You will be able to see what fees are being charged to the 401k participants as well as the fees for the individual funds. Once you get that, you can make some informed decisions on what to do with your savings. If the fees are excessive or the available funds poor, you can explore rolling your money out into an IRA, as Munch describes above.

23

Can you take money out of an IRA, shortly after rollover?

24

Yes you can.

I just poked around on my plan. It was in the documents section, and called “Annual Notice - Fee Disclosure”.

25

Can we stop relying on AI for answers?

26

Why? As has been said “Believe it or not”, and of course if you think that cite is bogus- please post a counter cite. AI, Wiki, etc- all decent cites, but of course other cites are better. In this case, the AI cite was not for the main issue, it was for a side issue, and there AI and Wiki are fine.

27

I have discovered that ALL large institutional 401ks in Tennessee are owned/run by a single company.
That smells like $#it to me.
Getting my stuff into a privately-run IRA, and soon!

28

You know; it’s okay to actually spell out the word shit here; we’re all adults. No need to obfuscate the word.

29

This isn’t remotely plausible. And even if it were true, wouldn’t mean anything. Either way, a small amount of googling shows it to not be true.

FedEx runs theirs through Vanguard.
HCA Healthcare runs theirs through Retirement Clearinghouse.
Bridgestone uses Fidelity.
Dollar General uses Voya.

If you meant governmental 401ks, it wouldn’t surprise me at all that they all use the same.

30

It’s interesting to me that the OP asked about trump-proofing a portfolio but the bulk of the thread has been Saving for Retirement 101. Which the OP seemed to badly need as a (very) early prereq to taking and passing Trump Proofing 400.

I’ve been thinking about what trump-proofing really means. Hard problem. If I have any good thoughts I’ll start a linked thread. Unless somebody beats me to it.

31

Someone beat you to it.

32

The OP is already retired, so it’s too late for “saving for retirement 101”.

33

Everything we’ve been talking about with the guy is rollovers and investment choices and expense ratios. All of which IMO are Saving 101. If he’s just now learning about this stuff that’s a darned shame. But for sure better late than never, and I’m happy to help where I can.

34

I did OK, & have a pension.
But the Invasion of Ukraine cut very deep into my funds.

35

I’m really curious as to how that happened. The invasion began in February of 2022. US stocks have certainly climbed since then, and interest rates have remained strong as well. Would you care to disclose in what were your funds invested? (It’s okay if you choose not to, but I am genuinely curious.)

36

Ditto.

Unless our OP has been sending money to Ukrainian relatives until it hurts. A lot. Which would be both noble and expensive. And personally risky financially.

37

Or was invested in Russian companies, perhaps.

38

I know I’m a little late, but I’ve also been wondering about appropriate strategies. I expect inflation to get out of control, and normally we’d see rates rise. But Trump has made quite clear that he thinks the President should have sway over rates, and he’s too stupid to know that sometimes rates need to rise. I see it in the MAGA folks I talk to. They’re all carrying credit card debt, they all stretch on car loans, and they talk about not being able to wait for Trump to push rates down. So that concerns me.

Also, deportations could be no only inflationary, but if actually carried out in large numbers could be recessionary, as businesses can’t find workers.

So if rates are going to rise, I’d probably shift a bit more into fixed income, which would be more appropriate for my age (51) anyway. On the other hand, lowering corporate taxes and cap gains rates will turbocharge equities. I think. I’m no expert.

So I just don’t know where I should have my money.
FWIW, I’m basically 70% S&P 500, 10% total bond index (5% yield) and 10% SPHY (High yield bond index, 7.75% yield). About 1/2 of my money is in an IRA and the other half in a regular brokerage account (both Fidelity). I don’t want to boast, but I’m doing OK and have 1 year of cash.

I’m open to thoughts, since retirement for me is 5-9 years away and for my wife is 10-15 years away.

39

Various funds in my 401k.
And I’ve made some needed withdraws, for medical, dental & badly-needed household renovations.
And a condo assessment.

40

Make that three, Gold As A Hedge thread is active as well.

Four: