The 401(k) is the defined contribution pension account under the Internal Revenue Code. Under the plan is the retirement savings contributions provided by an employer, deducted fro the employees paycheck before taxation. And on this coming election some people are really worried about the 401(k).
According to what the fund managers say, no matter who wins the White House. As long as you're a long-term investor willing to ride through whatever market bumps occur after Election Day, and there certainly could be scary ones, presidential elections historically haven't had much impact on stocks over the long term.
Annual stock returns going back to 1853 have been virtually identical, regardless of which party sits in the Oval Office, at roughly 11 percent, according to the investment strategy group at Vanguard. The U.S. president may be the leader of the free world, but even that much power doesn't allow for singlehanded control of the economy or interest rates.
Still, elections do hold great sway over investors' psyches. And investors have a history of overreacting to politics, which can lead to sharp, short-term moves in the market. It was only a few months ago that the United Kingdom's vote to exit the European Union sent investor anxiety higher and stocks tumbling around the world. The S&P 500 plunged 3.6 percent in one of its worst days since the financial crisis.
If Trump wins, a quick 10 percent loss for the market wouldn't be surprising, some fund managers say. The threat is serious enough that lawyers are racing to complete corporate-borrowing deals before Tuesday on the chance that a Trump victory causes a Brexit-like shock.
Still, the fund manage said that even if you thought that would happen, 10 percent corrections happen about once a year, and what's happened after every one is that we've recovered from every one," says Brian Nick, chief investment strategist at TIAA Global Asset Management.
Those factors that fund managers say matter more than the election - corporate earnings, the Fed and the global economy - all look less enticing than they did several years ago. Profits have only just recently started growing again, after falling for more than a year, while economic growth around the world remains only modest.
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