Since President Trump took office for the second time in 2025, tariff talks are all the rage and markets have entered a new phase of extreme volatility.

Since tariffs can be a good and a bad thing, we think it’s necessary to have some additional context beyond what the mainstream media seems to be focused on specifically - which is higher prices and inflation.

To understand the potential economic impacts moving forward and how these tariffs might affect markets and your investment portfolio, we need to zoom out and take a look at more than just the current headlines.

More specifically, I discuss:

• What are tariffs in layman’s terms, and why do they exist?
• What are the potential impacts of tariffs?
• What has happened historically with tariffs in the U.S. and how did the stock market react?
• What happened to inflation and the stock market during President Trump’s first term and his “America First” trade policies?
• What can happen with inflation and volatility in the stock market when tariffs are increased?
• LISTENER QUESTION: Collecting Social Security Benefits while working and when benefit payments adjust for additional years of earnings.

Resources From The Episode:

• Retired-ish Newsletter Sign-up
• Get Show Notes Here

Key moments:

(02:01) What are tariffs and why do they exist?

(03:14) Potential impact of tariffs

(04:19) Historical facts about U.S. tariffs

(06:53) Potential impacts of tariffs on your investment portfolio

(07:36) What happened the last time President Trump’s Administration increased tariffs?

(14:42) Listener question: Collecting Social Security while working and benefit adjustments

Due to the increasing political and market uncertainty, and recent stock market correction, we felt it was more important than ever to reintroduce this episode of the Retired·ish Podcast throwing it back to episode #8!

In this episode we defined the downside of what is called Sequence of Returns Risk - which is in my opinion can be the greatest threat to your retirement savings and income.

This risk can present itself when markets happen to be volatile to the downside at nearly the same time that you enter retirement when you go from saving to spending your retirement nest-egg – which can be a very nerve-wracking experience to go through.

We explained why it is crucial to understand that saving for retirement is actually the easy part, and how spending what you’ve saved up in your investment portfolio can quickly become a risky endeavor, especially if you have no strategy to mitigate the downside of Sequence of Returns Risk.

More specifically, I discuss:

• What is the greatest threat to your retirement savings?
• Examples of sequence of returns risk in the savings phase of your life
• Examples of sequence of returns risk in the spending phase of your life
• The difference between monitoring account balances vs. average investment returns
• What types of strategies can you implement to try and reduce sequence of returns risk

Resources From The Episode:

• Retired-ish Newsletter Sign-Up
• Get Show Notes Here

Key moments:

(05:23) "Sequence of Returns Risk": Retirement's Hidden Threat

(08:06) When The Sequence of Returns is Irrelevant

(10:34) Impact of Return Sequence When Spending in Retirement

(20:51) Emotion-Free Investment Strategy

(23:09) Short-Term Retirement Fund Strategy

(26:11) Investment Growth and Legacy Strategy

When the stock market produces double digit returns over multiple years in a row, investors and retirement savers naturally begin to get nervous and anticipate some sort of inevitable financial bubble.

This fear often stems from two things, from living and investing through recent historic market crashes such as the dot-com bubble and the great financial crisis, as well as the mere thought about how the recent and exuberant growth of your financial nest egg can sharply and suddenly be given back – and ultimately the thought of how that hit to your investments might impact your livelihood in retirement.

In this episode, we take a historical look at financial bubbles and what a “bubble” entails.

More specifically, we discuss:

• Insights from Howard Marks’ memo: “On Bubble Watch” and defining a financial “bubble”
• What causes financial or asset bubbles?
• How bubbles and market crashes can negatively affect investor behavior
• Media headlines and stock market bubbles
• Understanding the cycle of investment fads: My “Asset Bubble Circular Calculation”
• How an investment plan can guide you through market turmoil

Resources:

• Access Episode Show Notes and Sign Up for the Retired·ish Newsletter
• Ask Cameron A Question!
• “On Bubble Watch” – Howard Marks https://www.oaktreecapital.com/insights/memo/on-bubble-watch

Key moments:

(03:36) Exploring Stock Market Bubbles and What They Really Are

(04:15) What Actually Causes Stock Market & Other Asset "Bubbles"

(09:55) Bubbles Can Cause Negative Changes To Your Investing Behaviors

(12:49) The Impact of Media Headlines

(15:17) "The Asset Bubble Circular Calculation"