Tips you can use for managing your 401k amid inflation

INDIANAPOLIS — With inflation and rising interest rates, the state of the economy may have you on edge, wondering what to do with your retirement money. In fact, if you’ve recently checked your 401k balances recently, you might be wishing you hadn’t. Casey Marx of Carmel’s Crown Haven Wealth Advisors provides some tips on what you should be doing with your retirement investments right now, starting with young investors. “The younger person is probably going to have a much larger risk capacity, meaning they can experience some volatility and it won’t kill them,” said Marx. “And if you were going to get into the market at this stage, you can do dollar-cost averaging. So if you really like a company, you can buy now at a $100, and if they go down to $90, it really won’t matter to you because 30 years from now they could sell for $500 and that’s a win anyway.” But if you’re older and a bit closer to retirement age, you don’t have that kind of time for your 401k to rebound in the markent. If you’ll need your money sooner, Marx said you should ask yourself this question. “Can you really afford to go down another 10-20%? If you know you can afford to go down another 10-20%, then you stay the course. If you can’t afford to do that, then you probably shouldn’t remain where you’re at. The likelihood of the market going up – and especially straight up, like it did in 2020 after all the monetary stimulus that occurred – is like zero. That’s not going to happen this time.” It’s difficult to give blanket advice for everyone, but the best thing you can do is analyze your risk assessment. It looks different for everyone, which is why Marx recommends you get a financial advisor to help you understand which direction you should take.