So, I’m edging towards retirement and had not checked my 401K retirement plan for a while and thought I’d better check where I was at. Lets just say I was beyond pleased. In the 4 years of the Biden Presidency the value of my 401K has gone up almost 65% in value. Now, to be fair, I’m still making contributions too which is included in that, but, like I said, I’m getting closer to retirement so I’m not invested in the highest yielding markets anymore, so I’m more than happy with that, considering everything that has happened preceding the last 4 years.
I have begun to use this as an argument when my Republican family and friends start their standard “look at the terrible economy, look at the prices”. Many of them have much better jobs than me so I lead them on a little saying “yeah, the prices suck, but, I have been watching my 401K and its sure doing well, how are yours.” Depending on who it is, I say, “you get stock contributions from your company, don’t you”? (I don’t) Or I may lead them on saying, “you’re a lot smarter than me about investing, how are your stocks doing in your retirement account?” I’m guessing their investments are even doing better than mine.
The only way that my 401K has been able to increase by this amount is because companies have been raising prices far beyond the usual cost of doing business + normal profit (aka price gouging).
I’ll usually toss out to them, “After Bush crashed the economy and stock market with the whole housing market mess, I never thought I’d recover. I’m pretty happy with my 401K right now, how about you?”
They often stammer a little, but then admit their stocks are doing really well. They usually don’t think about it in time and try and say Trump left Biden the economy we have been running on to try and explain the stock market increase, but then I tell them, wait, you have been saying the economy is terrible, which one is it? Are you now saying Trump left us this terrible economy and Biden left us the great stock market? This really leaves them at a loss.
So yes, lets keep working on getting inflation and price gouging under control, but lets also discuss that the economy and stock market run hand in hand and if you are going to do nothing but complain about one, at least give credit where credit is due about the other.