Originally Posted by
Extenda
a point: the stock market is irrelevant if you’re in the vast majority of Americans with zero equity in it.
but, yes, for people like us with a maxed out 401k every year we generally rise and fall with equities.
Nor was I necessarily saying it was, although I would challenge that it is “irrelevant”.
alt=""
I simply posted two historical charts that demonstrated the economic impacts of the Iran war - the title of the thread - relative to two indexes that broadly reflect the economic consequences on most of our retirement accounts. Turbosina either couldn’t wait to play ‘gotcha’ to even look at the second photo or did look at it but didn’t understand it and proceeded to lecture me on the failings of the Dow,
But in an era when it has never been easier to actually look up things like participation rates we ought to be careful about throwing around terms like “irrelevant”. Clearly those of us with more disposable income are significantly more invested in the stock market (probably Miata’s too) than those with less disposable income,
Stock ownership by level of wealth
While more than half of U.S. adults own stock, most don't own much. The wealthiest 1% hold 50% of stocks, worth $29 trillion, as of the fourth quarter of 2025, according to the Federal Reserve.
If you expand to the top 10%, that group holds 87% of the stocks, valued at $44 trillion.
In comparison, the rest of the country has seen stock ownership dwindle. The bottom 50% of Americans by net worth own only 1% of stocks, which is worth roughly $620 billion.