John Csiszar

Sun, May 25, 2025, 10:02 AM4 min read

Affluent investors, by definition, are good at building wealth. But they’re also good at keeping it.  This is why average investors often look to the wealthy during times of market turmoil to see what they’re doing with their assets.

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According to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the tariff-induced market selloff may indeed be different from garden-variety corrections in the past, rattling the nerves of wealthy investors and forcing them into playing defense. Some are concerned that the U.S. is no longer the best place to be investing, while others are content to simply wait out the ups and downs of the market until the tariff policy, for better or worse, is more clearly articulated.

If you’re concerned about the market and looking for some different ways to ride out the recent volatility, check out where some of the richest investors are putting their money in 2025.

There’s a real fear among the wealthy that the U.S. is losing its famed exceptionalism. Economists from both sides of the political aisle have been sounding the alarm that tariffs effectively act as taxes on American companies and consumers, and other countries stand to gain.

Monica DiCenso, head of the global investment opportunities group at JPMorgan’s private bank, told WSJ that many of her firm’s wealthy investors worry that the U.S. will lose ground to companies in Japan and Europe, and they are worried about their exposure to U.S. stocks. Those economies have trailed the U.S. for decades, but they are rapidly making up ground, and their stock markets are beginning to reflect that.

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In the same vein, foreign currencies are attracting the attention of high-net-worth investors as the American economy remains unsettled.

Even after a 2%-plus rally from its three-year low in April 2025, the U.S. dollar still remained in the hole by a whopping 7.47% on a year-to-date (YTD) basis as of May 19. That’s a huge downward move for any currency in the developed world, particularly the U.S. dollar.

But the drop may not even be over. President Donald Trump is on record saying, “Our currency is too strong and it’s killing us,” so it’s not likely there will be any legislative or governmental assistance to prop it higher. In light of this dynamic — and the current state of tariffs and the world economy — some wealthy investors are snapping up foreign currencies in place of the U.S. dollar.