My answer hasn’t changed in 30 years, no matter which party was winning. Vote like it matters, because it does. Then invest like the election doesn’t, because for your retirement plan, it mostly doesn’t.

The market has voted before

American stocks have grown through Democratic presidents and Republican ones, through divided Congresses and single-party control, through wars, recessions, scandals and recounts. Every combination you can imagine has been tried, and long-term investors who stayed put came out ahead under all of them.

Midterm years do tend to be jumpy in the months before the vote, as markets dislike uncertainty more than they dislike any particular outcome. But historically, the stretch after a midterm, once the uncertainty clears, has been one of the stronger periods in the four-year cycle. The investor who bails out in October to “wait and see” often ends up buying back in at higher prices, after the relief rally they were too nervous to sit through.

That’s the hidden cost of political investing. Some of the market’s best days have historically arrived within days of its worst. Miss a handful of them by sitting in cash, and the damage to a long-term return can be far larger than the scare you were trying to avoid.

What Washington actually controls

None of this means politics is irrelevant to your retirement. It means you should worry about the right things.

Social Security. The trustees’ 2026 report projects the retirement trust fund can pay full benefits until late 2032. After that, absent action from Congress, incoming taxes would cover roughly 78% of scheduled benefits. Whoever wins this week, the next Congress inherits that problem, and the clock is running.

Here’s what history suggests: When Washington last fixed Social Security in 1983, the changes were phased in over decades and largely spared people already retired or close to it. No one can promise that again. But the planning answer is the same either way. Maximize the benefit you’re entitled to, and don’t build a retirement where a 20% haircut would sink you.

Taxes. Last year’s tax law made the current brackets permanent, but “permanent” in Washington means “until the next law.” The $6,000 senior deduction is already scheduled to vanish after 2028. Future Congresses facing big deficits may look for revenue, and tax-deferred retirement accounts are a large, tempting pile.

Medicare. Premiums, surcharges and benefit rules all move with policy. The trustees project Medicare’s hospital trust fund faces its own shortfall in 2033.

Build for either outcome

You can’t control who wins. You can build a plan that doesn’t need a particular winner.

That starts with tax diversification, the three buckets I keep talking about: taxable, tax-deferred and tax-free. If you have money in all three, you can adapt whether future tax rates rise, fall, or stay put. Every Roth conversion you complete by Dec. 31 at today’s known rates is a small hedge against whatever a future Congress decides.

It continues with guaranteed income that doesn’t depend on headlines. Social Security, a pension if you have one, and for many families, a Fixed Index Annuity with a lifetime income rider to cover the essentials. That income arrives the same whether the market celebrates or panics on Wednesday morning. The honest trade-off: caps limit your upside in a big year, and surrender periods mean this is long-term money. What you get in return is a paycheck that doesn’t care how the precincts reported.

And it finishes with keeping your growth money invested for the long haul, precisely because your bills are covered by something else. Panic selling is mostly a symptom of not knowing where the grocery money comes from.

Wednesday

On Wednesday, whatever the results, don’t touch a thing in your account based on the news. Make your coffee. Look out at Ben Lomond. Call the grandkids.

Your vote matters for the country. Your plan should matter for you, and a good one was built to work in either outcome.

Lyle Boss, The REAL BOSS Financial, a native Utahn and retirement specialist who has spent decades helping families across Utah and the Mountain West build secure, income-focused retirement plans. Boss Financial, 955 Chambers St. Suite 250, Ogden, UT 84403. Telephone: 801-475-9400. https://www.safemoneylyleboss.com.