After years of swelling market gains, it’s staggeringly clear: Markets can and do go down, fast.
U.S. stocks plummeted Thursday after President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs detonated through markets across the globe. And tariffs aren’t the only factor investors and savers are navigating right now — much of the financial footing beneath us feels shakier than ever.
There’s the stomach-churning uncertainty millions of workers are grappling with over job losses. There’s a haunting concern about Social Security and its future. The former head of the Social Security Administration has cautioned that the agency could be at risk of missing payments to seniors for the first time in its history thanks to the massive staffing cuts planned by the Trump administration.
Gas prices are rising and economists are openly warning of a recession.
The news is coming at us fast, and if you’re like me, you’re anxious.
I asked several financial advisors what they’re telling clients about how to manage their money in these unpredictable and unprecedented times.
Read more: Trump’s tariffs: What they mean for the economy and your wallet
There’s a long road ahead, and that in itself can be distracting. Lisa A.K. Kirchenbauer, senior advisor and founder of Omega Wealth Management in Arlington, Va., told Yahoo Finance the most important question we can ask is: What are you most concerned about?
Knowing what the real concerns are for you and your family is critical, she said. “Then you can think about what action you can take to navigate through it — if anything.”
Sometimes the best strategy is to simply sit on your hands.
“Volatility is often just noise,” she said. “Staying invested and making strategic adjustments, rather than reacting emotionally, leads to stronger long-term results.”
“It’s important for retirees to anticipate that tariffs may be passed on as price increases in the internationally manufactured goods they buy,” Lazetta Rainey Braxton, a financial planner and founder of The Real Wealth Coterie, told Yahoo Finance. “This kind of inflation directly affects their household budgets, so savers need to have a disciplined approach to wealth management.”
One priority right now is to have a cash “cushion account,” she said. “This is a critical safeguard to help you navigate inflation, job transitions, sabbaticals, and unexpected opportunities. These reserves provide stability and flexibility in an ever-changing geopolitical and economic environment.”
Braxton monitors stock and bond markets — both domestically and internationally — through the lens of geopolitical and economic developments, yet her investment philosophy is simple. Stay centered on long-term, wealth-building through passive index investing and diversification — a mix of U.S. and international stock and bond funds, as well as real estate.
How many years until you plan to retire? That number is key in the moves you make now.
“The mistake a lot of people make is selling out of positions when the market is lower,” John Anderson, a certified financial planner at Equitable Advisors, based in Chicago, told Yahoo Finance. “If there are still several years until retirement, and you’re an individual that might be doing the bulk of your retirement savings in a vehicle through your employer like a 401(k), continue to do those systematic investments while the market is down, because you are going to be buying shares more cheaply before the market rebounds.”
Anderson is spot on.
If you’re investing money automatically in your employer-sponsored retirement plan or an IRA, you’re investing when the market is ripping and when it’s tanking, and that means the return on your investments evens out over the long haul.
If you’re like many retirement savers and invest in a target-date retirement fund, your account is automatically adjusting for market gyrations.
With a target-date retirement fund, you pick the year you’d like to retire and buy a mutual fund with that year in its name (like Target 2044). The fund manager then splits up your investment between stocks and bonds, typically both US and international, changing that balance to a more conservative blend as the target date approaches.
Are you retiring within three to five years? Listen up.
“If you’re in a position where you are a little closer to retirement and you’ve built that nest egg up, then it’ll be good to work with your advisor to see what strategies or products are out there that might protect you from downside loss,” Anderson said.
“Generally speaking you might want to shift to a portfolio with less risk, by diversifying out of equities and more into fixed income holdings.”
That’s solid advice and in line with what I heard from many of the pros I talked to. When you’re close to stepping away from a steady paycheck. or already retired, you should have at least five years’ worth of living expenses in a combination of high-yielding savings accounts, CDs, money market funds, and high-quality bonds.
Today’s high rates have made cash, Treasurys, and bonds attractive again, Kirchenbauer said. “With 4% to 5% yields now available on low-risk investments such Treasuries, CDs and money market accounts, investors have an opportunity to earn competitive returns while waiting for more clarity on inflation and rate cuts.”
Learn more about high-yield savings accounts, money market accounts, and CD accounts.
“This is the time to meet with your advisor to review your portfolio,” Kimberly R. Stewart, a certified financial planner with Ameriprise Financial in Orlando, told Yahoo Finance. “These are important factors in determining how your assets are invested and allocated. The goal is to ensure that your portfolio is properly allocated and diversified based on your investment objectives.”
Financial advisors generally suggest rebalancing (adjusting your mix of stocks and bonds) whenever your portfolio gets more than 7% to 10% away from your original asset allocation, which was built to match your time horizon, risk tolerance, and financial goals. To roughly determine what percentage of your portfolio should be in stocks, subtract your age from 110. So, a 60-year-old would have 50% in stocks and the rest in bonds and cash.
“The mistake a lot of individuals make,” Anderson said, “is that they aren’t reviewing their portfolios on a consistent enough basis, and that might make one vulnerable when distributing funds from these accounts in down markets — which is going to potentially erode that nest egg faster.”
It’s time to put some of these good habits in place. As Kirchenbauer told me, this is just the beginning.
“There will be more ups and downs, more back and forth, more uncertainty before we get clarity,” she said. “As a skier, I think of it this way. This is not unlike when the light is ‘flat’ and you can’t really see in front of you, but a little farther out, you can see the contours of the slope. What skiers know is that they need to keep their knees bent and just ski through the flat light, staying focused farther down the hill.
“Right now, this may be all we can do — stay flexible and look ahead.”
My two cents along these same lines: When I ride down to a jump on my horse, I focus on the jump first, then lift my eyes and look beyond, keeping our pace steady and always moving forward.
Kerry Hannon is a Senior Columnist at Yahoo Finance. She is a career and retirement strategist and the author of 14 books, including “In Control at 50+: How to Succeed in the New World of Work” and “Never Too Old to Get Rich.” Follow her on Bluesky.
