My retirement fund that I just started was worth $15k in December of 2021. Then, May of 2022, our area was hit really hard. My retirement plan went down to $7k. Today, it’s worth $11k. I lost $4k on my retirement plan. It’s invested in total market funds, some tech, some big cap companies, and healthcare. But every sector has been ravaged by the stock market changes.
It’s fucked up for sure. Investing is akin to gambling in Vegas. Any one otherwise inconsequential detail could completely bankrupt you, and we’re expected to pin our elder years on this system.
Burn in fucking Hell Raegan.
Yeah, no, investing can’t be compared to gambling like that. Unless you’re picking stocks at absolute random, there are underlying market forces can be understood and used to make reliable investments.
OP made some shitty bets and is blaming the system
You can say the same things about sports betting.
No, you can’t. Fundamentally very, very different things.
A 401k isn’t mandatory. If you’ve got an issue with having a 401k, you don’t need to do so. I suspect, however, that you’ll be hard-pressed to find a route that will provide long-term returns as solid as regularly dropping funds into an index fund in a 401k.
Sure, picking an individual stock is basically gambling, but investing in index funds is basically betting on the house. And the house always wins.*
*Unless Trump is running it at least.