What I'm Doing With My Retirement Portfolio During This Bout of Stock Market Volatility

I know a lot of people who aren't exactly thrilled with the way the stock market has been swinging in April. And I get it -- it's been a wild ride, to say the least.

But while it can definitely be unsettling to see the value of your portfolio fluctuate to such extremes, it's also not necessarily something to worry about. And you should know that taking action during a market downturn could end up hurting you in the long run.

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It's a matter of where you are in your savings journey

My advice for riding out the current stock market storm is different for retirees or near-retirees than it is for people who are much younger. If you're currently retired or about to end your career, it's important to assess your portfolio and make sure you're not too heavily exposed to stocks. And if you are, it may be time to make changes.

When you're in or on the cusp of retirement, you may be in a place where you're actively using your portfolio for income, or you're about to start doing that any day now. And a large drop in your portfolio could therefore be quite problematic.

But things are different if you're many years away from retirement. If you're not ready to start using your retirement savings, you have time to ride out market events like the turbulence we've been grappling with in April. That's the approach I'm taking, and it's helping me keep my cool.

Why I'm not making any changes to my portfolio right now

While I won't go ahead and announce my age, I can say that if all goes according to my plans, I'm a good couple of decades away from retirement. Because of that, this recent bout of stock market volatility doesn't have me so nervous.

That isn't to say that I'm thrilled to see that my portfolio is down. But because I don't plan to pull any of that money out for many years, there's no reason for me to make drastic changes. So if you want to know what I'm doing with my retirement investments this month, the answer is: nothing.

Because I keep up with the news, I was prepared for the stock market to crumble in the wake of tariff announcements. So what I did prior to April was to check up on my investment mix and make sure I was happy with it from a diversification standpoint.

And you know what? I wasn't happy with it.

I had too large a percentage of my portfolio in the tech sector. That happened because the growth in my tech stocks outpaced the growth across my other holdings. So what I did back in March was dump some tech stocks while they were still up and replace them with different assets.

Because I did that rebalance, I'm not as worried now about my portfolio being down. The issue isn't with my asset mix so much as the general market. But I know that my best bet at this point is to ride out the storm and not sell assets while they're down for no good reason -- especially since I'm not using my portfolio for income.

It's natural to get spooked when the stock market takes such a drastic turn for the worse in short order. But if you're decades away from retirement, chances are, by the time you're ready to use your portfolio, you won't even remember what April 2025 looked like.

So your best bet may be to sit tight, ride things out, and pledge not to check your portfolio too often. The more you look during periods of volatility, the more likely you may be to make rash decisions that could hurt you in the long run.

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