“What should I do about tariffs?”
If you’ve been following the financial news at all.
You know that a feeling of anxiety has dominated the U.S. stock markets.
But in the last few days, that anxiety has turned into fear.
Fear of the March 4, 2025, enactment of 25% tariffs.
On all Canadian and Mexican imports.
U.S. companies that buy goods from these countries.
Pay a 25% tax.
Goods purchased from China pay an extra 10% tariff.
On top of the original 10% duty that began last month.
All three countries have retaliated with their own tariffs on U.S. goods.
That means the U.S. is now in a trade war.
The U.S. stock markets have not reacted to this news well.
Individual 401(k) investors are asking themselves the following questions:
Are the U.S. stock markets going into a correction?
Will the U.S. economy go into a recession?
Should I change my 401(k) allocation?
Is it time to get out and move everything to cash?
Tariffs increase business expenses and lower corporate profits.
Lower corporate profits mean lower corporate earnings.
Lower corporate earnings eventually mean lower stock prices.
Tariffs can also be inflationary.
When the U.S. is still dealing with higher-than-normal inflation.
If you don’t manage your 401(k) stock market risk now.
The new tariffs will do it for you.
And not in the way you would like them to.
You need to rethink the current stock market risk level in your 401(k).
It’s a simple shift.
Not hard if you use the right mutual fund analytical tools.
Switch from your 401(k) “making money.”
To protecting your 401(k) from “losing money.”
The “buy-and-hold” 401(k) investment management strategy is waning.
Individual 401(k) investors lulled to sleep the last few years.
Because they could be.
Are you open to learning how to protect your 401(k) principal?
It starts with a second opinion on your 401(k) mutual funds.
The ones you own. And the ones you should not own.
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