--- title: Here's How Greece Could Affect Your Retirement Savings description: Your 401(k) or IRA might feel the effects of a market dip if Greece defaults on it's next loan and potentially leaves the eurozone. authors: - name: Susie Poppick url: https://money.com/author/susie-poppick/ at_money_since: 2013 articles: 117 covers: - Retirement - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Personal Finance - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://x.com/susiepoppick former_staff: true published: '2015-07-07T15:07:50.000Z' modified: '2024-04-16T06:10:10.000Z' section: Retirement tags: - 401(k) - Greece - greek crisis - investments - portfolio - pubdesk - Retirement - stock market word_count: 312 canonical: https://money.com/greece-retirement-401k/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Reaction As Greece Imposes Capital Control](https://img.money.com/2015/07/gettyimages-478968108.jpg) *A customer places her daily cash machine withdrawal limit of 60 euros into her purse after using an automated teller machines (ATM) outside a closed Eurobank Ergasias SA bank branch in Athens, Greece, on Monday, June 29, 2015.* Greek leaders are scrambling to nail down a new bailout deal before July 20, when the country would otherwise default on a €3.5 billion [bond repayment](http://www.wsj.com/articles/solution-to-greek-crisis-wont-come-overnight-juncker-warns-1436255691) to European creditors and might be forced to abandon the Euro currency altogether. As recent [stock performance](http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/SPX:IND) in the U.S. suggests, fears of what a so-called "Grexit" could do to Europe's economy has spread to American shores. Indeed, U.S. markets may very well be choppy for at least the next several weeks until there's more certainty about the future. But there are many reasons to believe that any impact on your 401(k) or IRA investments would be short-lived. For one, Greece comprises [only 0.3%](http://money.cnn.com/2015/07/05/investing/what-to-expect-market-greece-vote/index.html) of the global economy. And a typical target date mutual fund, used by many retirement plans, has an even [smaller sliver](https://money.com/greece-greek-crisis-investor-response/) of exposure to the country. Even if the worse case scenario happens and the Greek crisis affects Europe—or even causes a slowdown among U.S. companies that rely on European demand—history has shown that people who keep investing through recessions make their money back more quickly than one might expect. For example, if you had been so unlucky as to start investing $1,000 per year in the stock market right before the most recent recession, you would have made your money back after only [two years](http://money.cnn.com/2015/02/26/investing/stock-market-crash-bubble-investing/) post-recession. That's a good reason to [stay calm](https://money.com/greece-greek-crisis-investor-response/) and not do anything rash. Certainly, investing in today's globalized markets comes with risks. While Greece is relatively tiny, for example, China is a top global trader—and its current [market crash](http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/07/us-china-markets-idUSKCN0PH08Q20150707) could potentially [affect](http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/06/us-china-markets-funds-idUSKCN0PG1OF20150706) economies across the world. But the fact that it's hard to predict how market forces will play out on a global level is a reason to stay diversified, with portfolios exposed to many different countries and their economies. Watch the video below to learn more about why foreign stocks are important to your portfolio: ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/greece-retirement-401k/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Retirement", "item": "https://money.com/retirement/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Places to Retire", "item": "https://money.com/places-to-retire/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Here's How Greece Could Affect Your Retirement Savings" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/greece-retirement-401k/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/greece-retirement-401k/", "name": "Here's How Greece Could Affect Your Retirement Savings", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2015-07-07T15:07:50.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/greece-retirement-401k/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/greece-retirement-401k/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-16T06:10:10.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Here's How Greece Could Affect Your Retirement Savings", "articleSection": "Retirement", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2015/07/gettyimages-478968108.jpg", "width": 4000, "height": 2666, "caption": "Reaction As Greece Imposes Capital Control" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Susie Poppick", "url": "https://money.com/author/susie-poppick/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/susie-poppick/#author", "image": "https://img.money.com/2014/05/14-05-21_bio_author_poppick.jpg?quality=85&w=190&h=190&crop=1", "email": "susie_poppick@moneymail.com", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/susiepoppick" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2015-07-07T15:07:50.000Z", "description": "Your 401(k) or IRA might feel the effects of a market dip if Greece defaults on it's next loan and potentially leaves the eurozone.", "abstract": "Your 401(k) or IRA might feel the effects of a market dip if Greece defaults on it's next loan and potentially leaves the eurozone.", "@id": "https://money.com/greece-retirement-401k/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-04-16T06:10:10.000Z", "wordCount": 312, "keywords": [ "401(k)", "Greece", "greek crisis", "investments", "portfolio", "pubdesk", "Retirement", "stock market" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Retirement", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retirement" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Retirement community", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retirement_community" ] } ] } ] } ```