Bad news, today (3/24) my investments are down 26% YTD. Good news, yesterday they were down 30%. Looking for a diversion from the incessant news about the coronavirus, I decided to check in on my investents by logging into my brokerage account. I’m back to watching news about the coronavirus!
I am a regular reader of Ben Carlson’s A Wealth of Common Sense, so I was interested to read his latest post when I saw the headline, ‘How I’m Managing My Own Investments through the Crisis’. I appreciated his main point that everybody’s situation is different. He appears a bit younger than me and is still contributing regularly to his retirement accounts. I am not, but the overriding takeaway that is the same for both of us is this. Don’t do anything different with your investments in reaction to the coronavirus. If you contribute regularly to your savings, retirement, or children’s college fund, keep doing it. Autopiloting investment activity, especially when you are young and have a long time horizon, is the easiest way to take the emotions (a.k.a. panic mode) out of your investment strategy. If you rely on your investments for income, as I do, trust your plan. There will always be ups and downs, and the occasional black swan like we’re experiencing now, but if your plan was sound last month, chances are it is still sound this month. Don’t get me wrong, the pain is deep and it hurts, certainly in the short term. But if your plan was built carefully based on your situation, your goals and your timeline, it should be able to weather the storm. Be well and stay safe/stay home!
Proverbial Living 