What Do You Think About The Market?

Hello everyone, and welcome to this month's edition of The Big Question. No matter when you are watching or listening to this, this big question will be relevant. That's because this month's big question is related to the market and is an all-time favorite to ask, particularly when the market is at its most uncertain: what do you think about the market? And in the hopes of not burying the lead, we don't. And that's not to be crass, rude, or flippant, and it doesn't mean that we're burying our heads in the sand, ignoring the many important events, policy changes, updates, and headlines impacting our world each day. It more simply means that it does not drive our day-to-day decision-making. And we do not make knee-jerk adjustments, moving in and out of the market simply because of what's occurring in that given moment, or what's worse, what may or may not happen in the coming months. In fact, it is our job to tune out this noise to enable us to make the soundest investment decisions for our clients.

Think about the many articles, financial related and otherwise, that you read last year. How many of those do you truly remember? How many of the topics covered are even still relevant? How many did you read simply because of a catchy, often scary, often hyperbolic headline? Frankly, on any given day, there seems to be a handful of articles, investment experts, and news anchors calling for a recession. I think you're getting my point.

Now, do we need a plan for market volatility? Absolutely. Should that plan be to make wholesale changes to the investment strategy, for example moving from fully invested to cash, then back to fully invested? Absolutely not. I don't think I can state this clearly enough: if your goals have not changed, then your financial plan and your investment plan should not change. You should not have an investment strategy based upon conjecture, but rather one that is built for longevity, one that is built not to simply weather market volatility, but to benefit from it. And that is why you need a financial plan, and that is why you need a disciplined and defined investment strategy.

In moments of peak uncertainty, we would all be better off if we did our best to simply tune out this noise and come back to our plan, understanding that so much of that is outside of our control, but so much of this is within our control, and that is what matters. Thanks for joining me everyone. Until next month.