Your Retirement Savings

otm

xpost If you are super worried about a stock market bubble (although it only matters what your account is worth when you actually withdraw the money) you could just transfer the 401k to an IRA and redistribute the funds or hold them in cash/savings until a time that you feel things are cheaper.

everything crashes or inflates, and I'm penniless

...as would be everyone whose net worth could be written without at least a generous handful of zeroes. A general financial catastrophe can't be planned around. You just have to gut it out with whatever resources you can salvage from the fire. But it's always a good idea to have some tangible assets that aren't just 'paper' or digits on a bank's balance sheet, because those are the first to immolate.

There was a time when I thought I'd be able to get away with just selling my CD collection if I was skint.

My plan B is "Well, I can always move to Lincolnshire".

My story is similar to officer sonny bonds', but I had it in the bank where it all got eaten by rent during long-term unemployment