12-03-2025
Peoria financial planner: Drop in stock market left people ‘shocked'
PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD) — On Tuesday, indexes on the U.S. Stock Market continued their monthlong downward slide. And it's left many uncertain about their future retirement plans.
Rockie Zeigler, certified financial planner and owner of R.P. Zeigler Investment Services, said the trend, after hopes of even more growth, has shocked investors of all ages.
'There was a lot of optimism with the stock market going up this year,' Zeigler said. 'So I think this recent downturn has taken a lot of investors — younger, retired, if you're 25 or 55 or 75 — I feel like it's taken a lot of folks by surprise.'
According to the Associated Press, the S&P 500 saw a huge decline yesterday with them writing, 'the index briefly fell more than 10% below its all-time high set last month.'
Zeigler said the drop is most likely a result of President Donald Trump's tariffs imposed on Canada, China and Mexico, along with a decline in earnings for large retailers.
'I think tariffs and a lack of confidence in corporate America are probably the two biggest issues right now,' he said.
Some recently looked at their 401(k)s and saw a big decrease in the total. That leaves some people wondering if they should sell. But even with the recent dip in the market, Zeigler has advice for investors of all ages — don't just sell off in panic.
He said what he is commonly told by people is that they view retirement as the end of growing their investments.
'A lot of people look at retirement as like this finish line. 'I've saved up all this money and now I've reached this finish line, and for so from here on out, I'm just going to live off the interest rate.''
He said that retirement is actually like a new beginning, a time where you can keep banking more and more on what you have invested in.
'You've got your pre-retirement life in your post-retirement life,' he said. 'You're still going to need this money to grow. Look at your investments, how much risk are you taking? Are you still comfortable with that amount of risk?'
Overall, Zeigler doesn't want people to make financial decisions based off of emotion, and wants them to make sure they know what kind of risk they are comfortable with.
'Look at your asset allocation between stocks and bonds, cash and alternatives, etc. Take a look at those things and let those things guide those decisions,' Ziegler added.
Most of the indexes on the U.S. Stock Market showed some modest gains on Wednesday at time this article was written.
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