My investment strategy has been pretty simple: buy the S&P 500 in half a dozen different ETFs, keep some cash in a money market ETF, hold and don't touch. Max out the 401k and Roth, and try and live on the cash flow I have coming in from my job . Roughy half of what I have in the market is in retirement accounts and the other half brokerage. That's served me pretty well for the last several years as my unrealized gains have exceeded my salary by 1.5-2x each year. I'm 49, house is paid off, kids 529's are fully funded, zero debt other than monthly credit card balance that gets paid in full. I have no intention of retiring any time soon. I'm in a really good spot now but I'd like to get the FU money and be in a place social security is just play money.
I'm completely terrified of losing all I've worked for. A credit crunch popping the AI bubble. Oil prices. Political instability. War. A debt default. Hyperinflation. No jobs. Take your pick, maybe several. I know something is coming and I've seen this multiple times in my life as and adult and a kid. I've only heard the stories of a depression from my grandparents.
How do you hedge against the worse case senarios? I'm hard-pressed to point to a country that's not going to be impacted I can invest in. I understand hard assets are important but I don't know what access class is actually safe anymore. There are way too many things going on for me to even to pretend I have any idea what I need to do to protect myself.