Stocks are high because you have 55 million baby-boomers at retirement - who have NOT saved enough for retirement, so they are frantically dumping their money into 401K and IRA’s (stocks) regardless of what the price is or actually should be; and you have 45 million post-boomers who KNOW they will not be eligible for Social Security for some “new” reason or another that has yet to be invented ... So THEY have to dump THEIR money into 401K and IRA ...
Again, regardless of whether the stock prices are good or bad, they have no choice but to buy stock.
I’m in the latter category.
I think about it a lot, but I don’t know what to do, if anything.
I’m in my mid-to-late 40s. Have a modest nest egg invested in growth stocks because I don’t expect to retire until I’m in my 70s. A lot can happen in 30 years, but the 401(k) is hard to pass up due to company matching (100% gain on initial investment).
I can’t touch the money unless I quit, so my only real alternatives are what funds to invest in. My choices are stocks, bonds or money market. If the stock market crashes, are either of the other two alternatives going to be in any better shape? The only reason I’m in stocks at all is to try to hedge against inflation. I’m certainly not making any “real” money in terms of purchasing power.