Colorado-Based Empower Retirement Urges Investors To Be Patient In Wake Of Stock Market Plummet
DENVER (CBS4)- Concerns over the coronavirus and falling oil prices continued to rattle investors on Monday. The Dow Jones suffered its biggest one-day point decline ever.
The moving headlines in lights on a downtown Denver building announced the greatest point fall in one day in U.S. stock market history. The Dow Jones Industrial average dropped more than 2,000 points.
For people with retirement accounts, it can have different impacts. Tom Buttner is a staffing manager in his 20s. He has a retirement account, but a long way to go before it's time to tap it.
When CBS4's Rick Sallinger asked him, "Are you worried?"
Buttner replied "Of course, about lot of things, something to add to the list, I guess."
The Denver metro area is home to the second largest retirement plan provider in the country. Nearly 9.5 million Americans have their retirement accounts through Empower Retirement based in Greenwood Village. When CBS4 visited on Monday, the phones were ringing plenty with people inquiring about their accounts.
Ed Murphy the President and CEO of Empower Retirement, insists the best thing to do is be patient and stay the course.
"When they see the balance dropping they may make a knee jerk reaction and you may make a decision you regret," he said.
"I think people are anxious and there is some nervousness often times the calls we get are calls where people are looking for reassurance. What we haven't seen is this broad scale capitulation or panic on the part of investors."
Oil has taken a big hit.
Jim Hanson, in his 60s, works in the energy sector. Because of his age he has balanced his retirement account on the conservative side. He sees the market fall as an opportunity.
"I am looking under the mattress to see if there are additional funds I can place on the market because this is a great opportunity for a lot of people," he said.
In the meantime, Hanson and others are hoping what goes down will eventually go up.
