With the volatile stock market and many financial experts say there’s a long-lasting bear market, many investors may feel wary as they check their 401(k)s. However, one retirement expert said investors shouldn’t panic about their retirement plans.
“Saving for retirement is a long-term process,” Nick Nefouse, head of LifePath and head of retirement solutions at BlackRock, told Yahoo Finance Live (video above). “We find this often with people where what we encourage them to do is to not sell. We encourage them to stay in for the long haul.”
And instead of cashing out, he encourages investors to stay the course and continue to contribute to their retirement plans.
“Even though the markets are down because you’re still saving, because you’re still way early in your career, you still have time to make this up. And your savings is gonna drive a lot of these returns over the long run,” Nefouse said.
Nefouse advises investors to choose relatively conservative options for retirement, like target-date funds. Target-date funds are diversified retirement funds for investors that they can invest in for a set number of years. After a certain date, investors can withdraw funds.
“These are very simple portfolios. They’re age-based. They’re diversified. They evolve with you over time. So it takes a lot of the guesswork out,” Nefouse said.
A Blackrock survey of 1,300 workers with retirement plans also found that despite their reputation for being financially irresponsible, Gen Z investors are saving more than other generations.
“We released a survey a couple of weeks ago. And what we actually found was Gen Z is saving quite a bit,” Nefouse said. “They estimated about a 14% savings rate for Gen Z. So they are saving more than we see in other generations.”
Nefouse believes that because they don’t have pensions to depend on like older workers, young adults have to save more money for retirement.
“What you find is that you’re gonna be on the hook for your own retirement. Therefore, we think more people are using savings as a strong lever to build their retirement, which we haven’t seen in previous generations,” Nefouse said.
Nefouse wants young people saving for retirement to also talk to their employers to find out what they need to do to get their 401(k) contributions matched.
“We find a lot of investors will be in a 401(k), but they’re not saving to their company match,” Nefouse said. “And this is really free money for the young investors.”
