In Reply to: Whatever you do don't check your 401Ks posted by russsmith on October 16, 2026 at 13:13:19
Well imagine that in a recent survey done by Fidelity and Empower, the average 401K in the US is up 6.1% this year.
Note that's 401K not IRA, as people who actually have investments know, most people have 401K's from work and eventually roll them into IRA's. Most people do much better in IRA's than 401K's because they have far fewer options in 401K you are limited to what's allowed in the employer plan.
Fidelity manages my IRA, my wife's last employer 401K was rolled into an IRA at Fidelity but they weren't managing it. Mine outperformed hers 2024, 2025, and 2026.
So when Trump says look at your 401K that's what we're talking about. For most people their 401K is up but well below what it would be if they were also invested in foreign stocks which are for the most part outperforming what's in US 401K's. For the year the DOW is only up 6%, S and P 13, Nasdaq 16.
So let's compare shall we
2023 DOW up 13.7%, 2024 up 12.8
2023 S and P up 24.7 2024 up 24
2023 NASDAQ up 44.5 2024 up 30.8
2025 they were up 13, 16 and 20 %
I'm not a math expert but seems like everyone's 401K and in particular their IRA's did MUCH better in 2023 and 2024 than they did in 25 and 26.