Panic is so passé.
Investors are keeping their cool – and keeping their hands off of their retirement accounts – despite huge swings in the stock market that sent it careening to its worst start to a year ever.
“They are just plugging away through the ups and downs of the stock market,” said Sarah Holden, director of retirement and investor research at the Investment Company Institute, an association of regulated funds.
It can be nerve-wracking to see retirement balances plunge with the market, conjuring fears of spending the golden years in a cardboard box. Retirement account administrators say they see a sharp uptick in phone calls when the market stumbles, and this downturn has been no different.
But then, sensibly, they don’t do much, says John Sweeney, executive vice president of investing strategies at Fidelity, one the largest administrators of 401(k) accounts.