52% of American adults do not have any investments in stock

[titaniumsalute]

I just read the Trump Admin will make the economy and stock market a central piece of their 2018 messaging. But how will the 52% of Americans who have no investments feel about that message? How will those Americans who haven't had a raise in 5 to 10 years feel? How will the underemployed Americans feel? How will people on disability feel once their Medicaid runs out? How will Seniors feel when Medicare gets cut? How will Americans feel when they can no longer write off their home equity loan interest? Or their property taxes?

And the biggest thing of all. Stock markets go up...and they go down. Most economic analysts are saying the markets are way over leveraged and will have to decline soon. Once they retreat what else does Trump have left? Nothing.

[ProfessorGAC]

1. Overleveraged?

I haven't seen that. Not even sure what that is supposed to mean. If per capita productivity is up, and the economy is growing (at the nominal level, with very modest real growth) and inflation is low, why would this be?

I haven't seen any highly credible predictions of a major correction. Modest maybe, but nothing that will crush the 401k's of most people who are in broad based funds.

[TheMastersNemesis]

2. That Fact Means That Over 50% Of Workers Do Not Make Enough To Save For 401K

The real truth is that perhaps a huge majority of workers do not make enough to even save for a 402K or make enough to even come close to having an adequate 401K. Even many Americans who do have a 401K will not ever have enough money to retire without some form of Social Security. In many cases they will have only enough for a funeral.

[tonyt53]

3. It really IS that simple.

[Siwsan]

4. A lot of the people I worked with have had to borrow against their 401K

The company I worked for offered, at one time, a very generous 401K contribution program. We didn't have anything else in the way of retirement benefits save for, after 15 years and at age 62, they would cover our health insurance until Medicare kicks in.

The company was purchased by another, and the benefit has been vastly trimmed. Many of my contemporaries, who are still there, are in a world of hurt, right now, because they are already borrowed against that fund, they are very close to or at retirement age, and the company is starting on employee cutbacks.

I retired from the company JUST before things went south and re-invested my 401K. Unless they end Social Security, all together, I'm going to be "ok", but then I am freakishly healthy and very low maintenance. My big concern is that I can maintain enough of a financial base that I can pass it on to my niece and nephews, when I die. They are the ones I really worry about.

[Wellstone ruled]

5. The 52% seems darn high.

Seen this number before,looks like ADP's number,if it is,here is the lead balloon with this number. This might be ADP's internal numbers based on their Payroll Processing. Hunch is there are a greater percentage of Workers not able to fund a 401. Do know of a Major DIY Big Box who sets up a 401 for all their Employees after their one year anniversary as Internal Tax thing. The Employee does not have to put any of their Pay check into it . It has something to do with obtaining Federal Contracts. That would be some 30k Employees.

[handmade34]

6. numbers

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/13/heres-how-many-americans-have-nothing-at-all-saved-for-retirement.html

Given that less than 13 percent of Americans have pensions — though as recently as 25 years ago, that figure was 38 percent — and, for millions of U.S. workers, "the grand 401(k) experiment has been a failure," how will seniors cope? Some expect to rely more on Social Security, Gallup reports, though that was always intended to be a supplement, not a primary source of income.

Participation in retirement savings plans is highly unequal across income groups. In 2013, nearly nine in 10 families in the top income fifth had retirement account savings, compared with fewer than one in 10 families in the bottom income fifth

http://www.epi.org/publication/retirement-in-america/#charts

[procon]

7. I have never understood how politicians, and the reporters who interview them,

can be so disconnected from the hand to mouth existence of most Americans. They live so far above the masses they have no concept of what it's like living from paycheck to paycheck with not opportunity to save much beyond the thought of money for new school shoes or to pay the gas bill and keep the heat on.

The stock market is just another word for gambling, and if we can't afford to go blow our paychecks at a casino, there simply is nothing left to "invest". The unions have been beaten back so our wages aren't enough to live on and there's no benefits for old age. Now Republicans are taking away the few perks we have left so they and their rich benefactors can get even richer at our expense. We have no means of redress. The majority of us will just sink deeper into poverty in our old age as we depend on the ever shrinking SS and Medicare for our retirement.

[wasupaloopa]

8. Stock is not the best investment.

My new house increases in value $65,000 since July 2015.

I am getting a cash out refinance at the same low interest rate. The cash will be used to pay off debt saving tons of interest charges. My payment is going up $200 a month but I will save close to $2,000 per month in debt payments not needing psyment. The interest on the new mortgage is still tax deductible.
I am 71and will never live to pay off the new mortgage so it does not bother me that I pay $200 per month more.

Could not do any of that with the amount of stocks I could afford.

[panader0]

9. 80 % of stocks are owned by the top 10%:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/03/02/perspective-on-the-stock-market-rally-80-of-stock-value-held-by-top-10/?utm_term=.d988098ea65a

[TheFrenchRazor]

10. yep, that's why they think the stock market is the end-all and be-all of the "economy." for a lot of

a lot of us, it is completely irrelevant.