A trader working at the New York Stock Exchange on April 3, 2025, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average had its fifth biggest drop in history. (Photo courtesy of NYSE)
WASHINGTON — U.S. investors lost $3.1 trillion on Day 1 of President Donald Trump’s trade war, launched with steep tariffs applied to friend and foe alike.
The market crash may force retirees and aging workers hoping to retire soon in Arizona to redo plans – delaying trips and purchases or staying on the job for a few more years.
“It makes us very nervous,” said Len Kirschner, an 89-year-old retired Air Force colonel who lives in Litchfield Park. “Many of us are living on retirement incomes and you need to have more than just Social Security.”
The markets plummeted Thursday, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index down 6%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 4% and the S&P 500 down 4.8%.
It was the biggest one-day drop since June 2020, and the Dow’s fifth worst day in its history.
“If you’re 75 years old and your total income is dependent on Social Security and supplemented by a small 401k account … that’s really scary,” said retiree Paul Stensgaard, a former insurance claims manager who lives in Fountain Hills.
Retirement assets nationwide totaled $44.1 trillion as of Dec. 31, according to the Investment Company Institute. That includes pension plans, 401k accounts and individual retirement accounts.
Stocks – the assets hammered Thursday – account for the bulk of retirement savings: 69% of 401k investments, according to a 2022 study by ICI and the Employee Benefit Research Institute.
Younger investors have 80% of their 401k accounts in stocks, the study found. As retirement looms, financial advisers urge clients to shift to less volatile assets, and investors in their 60s had about 56% of their portfolios in stocks.
Trump triggered the selloff on Wednesday when he announced tariffs on imports from dozens of countries starting at 10% and ranging as high as 54% on China. The small African kingdom of Lesotho will face a 50% tariff, as will Saint Pierre and Miquelon, a pair of islands owned by France near Newfoundland, Canada.
The president called it “liberation day,” promising his tough stance will boost domestic manufacturing and jobs. With markets bleeding around the world Thursday afternoon, he insisted the plan was “going very well.”
Allies were not spared, and many are livid. The European Union will face a 20% import tax. The tariffs are 17% on Israel, 25% on South Korea and 24% on Japan.
U.S. investors also felt the impact.
The Arizona State Retirement System held $55.7 billion in investments as of June 30, according to its annual report. The system has just over 180,000 current beneficiaries and 225,000 active members working for the state, school districts and other public entities.
Under the state Constitution, benefits are guaranteed, and the agency assures current and future beneficiaries that even a market crash will not impact their payments.
Arizona is a magnet for retirees, with about 1.4 million residents being 65 or older – about one in five – according to the 2020 census.
Jim Scott, 58, the secretary of the investment club at the Sun City West retirement community, called the downturn inevitable.
“This has been long overdue,” he said.
“Today is raining cats and dogs but the sun is going to come out,” he added.
Unlike many investors, Scott had shifted his money out of the market and into cash in anticipation of a drop. For him, the plunge represents an opportunity to get back into the market at bargain prices.
“I am excited. … We’re pioneering a new trail,” he said.
Other retirees in Arizona were reeling.
“We’re probably going to have a recession,” said Stensgaard, 76, though he said his portfolio is robust enough that he can shrug off the market turmoil.
“It doesn’t worry me in the short term,” he said, but if “you are living off your 401k … this would be worrisome.”