48% of Americans Not Confident About Their Retirement Planning

Are you confident about what you’re doing to prepare for your retirement? Are you sure of your ability to make ends meet once you’re on a fixed income? If so, then you’re ahead of nearly half of the population. According to a survey by the Federal Reserve, 48% of Americans are only slightly or not at all confident about their retirement planning. If you look at what the economy has done recently, and the path it’s currently on, it’s easy to see why.

Losing Your Investment

Even people who are regularly contributing money to an IRA/401(k) still express trepidation about their financial future after retirement. The main thing they’re concerned about is their investment choices. This has always been difficult to gauge.

In 2008, when the market crashed, many people who had been paying into a retirement fund for years saw their savings decimated. The stocks they’d invested in plummeted, and they were left without enough to live on.

Some of those who still had a few years left until they left work were able to recover at least somewhat and rebuild their nest egg over time. However, people who were right at retirement age when the crash occurred were left between a rock and a hard place.

Many found they couldn’t support themselves without going back to work in some capacity, but their age and the state of the economy made this a difficult proposition. Meanwhile, the housing crisis left property values at rock bottom, so they were unable to make money by selling their home and moving to a smaller space, either.

Protecting Yourself from Future Catastrophe

These people did everything right. They saved and invested to build up a retirement fund, and it disappeared out from under them without warning. Maybe you lost a portion of your own nest egg during the financial crisis, or maybe you know someone who couldn’t afford to retire due to their losses.

In light of that, it’s no wonder so many Americans lack confidence in their retirement planning—especially since signs indicate that we’re headed toward another financial crisis in the near future. However, it is possible to take steps to protect yourself.

Your best course of action is to diversify your portfolio, to include at least one safe haven. That way, if the market crashes again, you may lose part of your investment, but you still have something to fall back on. This is where gold IRAs come in. As a physical asset, gold retains its value over time. It’s not subject to inflation, and so, unlike cash, will have the same buying power 20 years from now that it does today.

What’s more, the price of gold tends to go up when the market goes down, as people scramble to put their money in something more stable. What this means for you is that if you put a portion of your money into gold, it’s protected against the volatility of the market. If you lose your stock investments, you still have your gold IRA as a safety net.

You never know what’s going to happen. A variety of factors can affect the stock market and general economy, causing you to lose your investment overnight. However, with a little bit of planning and a good safe haven such as a gold IRA, you can protect yourself and raise your confidence in your own retirement savings.