alt Hacker News> What's your proposal for the people who lose their retirement?
You would only lose your retirement if 100% of your savings was invested in company(s) that eventually went to zero.
Even if you're 100% equities, and concentrated in (e.g.) the S&P 500, that would mean that the five hundred largest companies in the US would have to go to zero before you would "lose" your retirement.
One could also go for a total US market fund (Russell 3000, $VTI) or total world market fund ($VT). Further, having a bit of bonds (10-20%) would allow you to be cushioned for things like the '00s, where the S&P 500 returned 0% for the decade:
* https://www.forbes.com/sites/advisor/2010/09/13/its-not-real...
Historically, even if you only invested lump sums just before crashes, you would have done fine as long as you stuck with it:
* https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2014/02/worlds-worst-market...
The stock market is basically the anti-casino: the longer you participate the better your chances of coming out ahead:
* https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2023/05/the-stock-market-is...
Replies
I mean you're right but also not right.
If your retirement savings went down by 20% and you had to put off retirement by 5 years, but then you died after 5 years, you've lost your retirement!
The problem is AI stock valuations effects the valuation of the market as a whole. If 10% of your stocks are AI and AI flopped to 0, you wouldn't just lose 10% of your investment because nearly every other stock is going to drop a significant portion along with it.