The world is a bit of a scary place right now, with everything so up in the air and the markets so volatile. It feels as though one wrong move could cause those hard-earned savings to disappear. It might sound dramatic, but a lot of us are nervous and wondering what we can do to stop our financial security from crashing down around our ears.Â
According to a recent study, nearly 7 in 10 Americans say financial uncertainty has made them feel depressed and anxious, a figure that has risen 8 percentage points since 2023.
Well, after all that doom and gloom, there is some good news on the horizon when it comes to retirement savings. Instead of holding your breath and hoping, there are some things you can do to ensure stability and growth.
5 Ways to Supercharge Your Retirement Savings Right Now
When markets fall, the contributions you keep making buy more than they did when prices were high; it’s just how investing works. The people who paused contributions during every period of uncertainty are the ones who look back and wish they hadn’t.
Volatility tends to reward the people who stay the course and get smarter about what they’re doing. That’s what these five strategies do.
Are You Leaving Part of Your Salary on the Table?
If your employer offers a retirement match and you’re not contributing enough to capture all of it, you’re handing back part of your own salary every single pay period.
Many employers match contributions up to a certain percentage of your paycheck. Some match dollar-for-dollar, while others match 50 cents on the dollar. The details vary, but the principle is the same: it is free money, added directly to your retirement account, that you are entitled to simply by contributing enough to trigger it.
A dollar-for-dollar employer match represents a 100% guaranteed return on your investment before the market does anything at all. That doesn’t exist anywhere else in the financial world without a serious risk attached to it.
If you’re not sure what your employer offers or whether you’re capturing the full amount, that’s a conversation worth having with your HR department this week.
No Workplace Retirement Plan? You Have More Options Than You Know
Not every employer offers a 401(k), and if yours doesn’t, it’s easy to feel like the retirement savings conversation doesn’t quite apply to you. It does.
An Individual Retirement Account, or IRA, is available to anyone with earned income, and it comes in two useful varieties. A traditional IRA lets you contribute pre-tax dollars, which can reduce your taxable income now and have the money grow until you withdraw it in retirement.
A Roth IRA works the other way: you contribute money you’ve already paid tax on, but it grows completely tax-free and comes out tax-free in retirement.
Neither requires a financial advisor to set up. Both are accessible, straightforward, and worth starting as soon as possible.
If you’re 50 or older, the IRS allows you to make additional catch-up contributions beyond the standard annual limit. It’s the government’s way of acknowledging that retirement is getting closer, and you might want to accelerate. Not nearly enough people take advantage of it.
Take a Hard Look at Where Your Money Is Actually Invested
Many people invest too conservatively because it feels safer, particularly when markets are volatile. The instinct makes sense emotionally, but investing too cautiously over a long time horizon limits the growth your retirement fund needs to keep pace with inflation and support you through retirement.
Others are taking on more risk than they realize and haven’t reviewed their portfolios since they first set them up.
Most employer retirement plans offer free consultations with a financial advisor or online tools that help you assess your current allocation and rebalance based on your age and retirement timeline.
These tools are underused and extremely useful. If you’ve never touched your asset allocation or haven’t reviewed it in years, a volatile economy is actually one of the better times to do it. You’ll have a clearer picture of your risk tolerance than you would during a bull market when everything looks fine.
Your Health Savings Account (HSA) Can Give You Tax-Free Growth
Most people think of their Health Savings Account as a pot of money for doctors’ bills. It is that, but it’s also one of the most powerful retirement savings tools available, and most people never use it that way.
If you have a high-deductible health plan through your employer, your HSA comes with a triple tax advantage. Contributions go in tax-free, the money grows tax-free, and withdrawals are tax-free as long as you use them for qualified medical expenses.
The strategy that makes this a retirement supercharger: where you can, pay your current medical costs out of pocket and leave your HSA balance completely untouched. Let it sit and compound year after year.
When you consider that the average retired couple needs over $300,000 saved just to cover healthcare costs in retirement, having a dedicated fund growing in the background starts to look very smart indeed.
This one only applies if you have a high-deductible health plan, so check your current coverage before factoring it into your plan.
Set & Forget: Use the Automatic Contribution Increase
Most people set their contribution rate when they first sign up for a workplace retirement plan and never look at it again. Meanwhile, their salary has increased, their cost of living has gone up, and their retirement contributions remain at the same percentage they chose years ago.
This is such an easy fix. Most employer retirement plans offer an automatic escalation feature that increases your contribution by a small percentage each year. Set it up once, and you’re done.
Time the increase to coincide with your annual pay raise, and you won’t feel a difference in your take-home pay. But over five, ten, or fifteen years, the compounding effect on your retirement account is significant.
If you can’t increase your contributions right now, that’s fine. But if you haven’t checked that percentage since you signed up, it’s worth five minutes of your time to do so.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Please consult a qualified financial advisor before making changes to your retirement savings strategy.
Disclaimer: The content in this article is for informational purposes only and is not intended as financial, investment, or tax advice. Always consult a qualified financial advisor or tax professional before making decisions about your money, investments, or retirement planning.
Kylie Lang is a nationally syndicated travel journalist with bylines on the Associated Press Wire & more, a lifestyle writer, and the founder and editor of Your Lifestyle Library (yourlifestylelibrary.com). She holds a BA (Honours) in History from the University of Kent and is a member of the British Guild of Travel Writers.