: It would be funny as hack if people stopped contributing for 401Ks and took a lot of their money out of the stock markets and related "investment funds" and began actually saving money in safes, safe deposit boxes, or Mason jars in the back yard and/or putting money into deferred income annuities. Or some combination thereof.
Wall Street would freak TF out. So would Congress. It'd be a hoot.
@Stevo: The get-rich-quick in stocks was the big thing in the 1980s. Shunting everyone's money into the stock market was the way Reagan & Co. figured would make life better, but it didn't, really. The results were illusory, smoke and mirrors, but hey, it made people fell better and made a LOT of people VERY rich.
@thedisasterautist The whole Gamergate or whatever it was called there a few years ago is what got a lot of the people I know into it.
@Stevo: Yeah, the Gamestop thing, yes. That's when the hedge fund bros were losing so much money on their shorting of the stock that they got the trading apps to limit "casuals" from trading too much.
@thedisasterautist Just because of that, my best buddy invested so much money, stocks is all he talked about for so long until he just stopped talking about them. I actually never asked him but i'm sure he lost a lot of money. I've invested peanuts so far, he's was throwing grands in there.
@Stevo: Alas, I know personally or have known personally more than a few people, more like maybe a hundred or so since after the 2008 bubble-bust who did crypto, NFTs, and/or used stock trading apps and all lost more than a little money. Some lost most of what they had (or borrowed) to the whims of the markets, bad advice, or plain old grifts. Many SFTU bragging about how well they were doing pretty quickly. Some tried to do the pyramid scheme thing with them as well and went bust.
@Stevo: I've also seen quite a few, though not nearly as many, people get in hot water with the IRS because they include their actual cashed-out gains from stocks and/or crypto sold.
@thedisasterautist or Gamestop I think it was ?
@thedisasterautist
It would be worth it to see that.
@thedisasterautist cash has no value. Gold on the other hand has effective preserved wealth (in terms of spending power).
@thedisasterautist *effectively. Sheesh. Since the times of Ancient Rome to today. One ounce of gold buys a fine suit of clothes then through now.
@thedisasterautist The stock market is a scam. The only people who benefit are the ones at the top. It’s a legal, national pyramid scheme.
When I pulled all my retirement money out to pursue a different plan for my financial future, my Edward Jones person was incredulous. She freaked out.
I basically just let her think I was an idiot and parted ways. I don’t owe her an explanation. But I do owe future me something better than gambling in the stock market.
@thedisasterautist Everyone wants to get rich easy. It's incredible the number of people I know who started investing in stocks in recent years, and to be honest, i'm included in that although I'm very low on the totem pole of investments.