President Donald Trump Wednesday suddenly backed down on most of the reciprocal tariffs he ordered just last week, offering most nations 90 days to meet his demands on trade agreements. The reversal — announced without warning on Truth Social — spurred a big afternoon rebound on Wall Street, after days of whipsawing stock markets that worried people who watched their retirement investments tank amid the ongoing volatility.

“I am almost 65, and I’m trying to budget for retirement in a few years,” said Beverly Brown Ruggia, a financial justice organizer with New Jersey Citizen Action. “And what I saw happen to my 401(k) last week was terrifying. I lost the gains of one year in one day.

“We have such a high cost of living already in New Jersey — housing, property taxes, the cost of maintaining a home are already at crisis level,” she said. “Significant drops in our retirement accounts, albeit short-term, could leave many New Jerseyans unable to cover basic expenses.”

Some 70 million Americans — 42% of working people — rely on 401(k) retirement savings accounts. And even those not close to retirement don’t know what to make of this gyrating stock market. Concerns are driving a flood of angry complaints to members of Congress, including Sen. Andy Kim’s (D-NJ) office.

Tom O’Flaherty, a fractional CFO in Mahwah, said he is now putting off retirement.

“Two weeks ago, I had open heart surgery … I’m going to pull the chips in, got enough money saved,” he said. “And then you know, sprinkle dust just happened all last week and, and including yesterday and today. So now it’s like, hold on a second. What do you do?”

While familiar with the markets, O’Flaherty said he feels caught in a political power play. “Nervous, anxious — excuse the French — pissed off,” he said of his reaction. “Because this did not need to happen. And to me it’s just a damn game.”

The president is apparently wielding tariffs as leverage, saying he wants to even trade imbalances with other nations. Last night, Trump told a dinner audience, “I’m telling you, these countries are calling us up and kissing my ass. They are dying to make a deal, people.”

Meanwhile, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent dismissed concerns about retirement accounts. “That’s a false narrative,” he told Meet the Press. “Americans who want to retire right now — Americans who have put away for years in their savings accounts — I think they don’t look at the day-to-day fluctuations of what’s happening. And in fact, most Americans don’t have everything in the markets.”

Financial planner David Haas urged caution. He said while the markets remain this volatile, people probably should not be cashing out stocks to spend on big-ticket items. “Then, you might want to think about putting that off,” said Haas, board chair of the Financial Planning Association of New Jersey. “And unfortunately that affects the entire economy, because people will be doing that.”

Sharif Muhammad of JMG CPAs said he is telling clients to hold on and touch base with their financial advisers, because the market will rebound — eventually.

“When the market is doing well, a lot of people are very comfortable taking on risk, but when when the waters get choppy, then there’s this desire to pull back,” he said. “It’s one of those periods where you have to take a deep breath.”