Matt Jude, CFP®, explains why staying disciplined during market downturns is the key to protecting your long-term returns.
Transcript
The most difficult part of investing is being disciplined, and it’s very tempting when markets are not doing well to say, I can’t handle this. You know, you see the news and the S&P 500 is down, Dow Jones is down, everything’s down. It’s very tempting to say, I’m gonna go to cash, sell my stocks and wait this thing out, and I’ll get back in when things are looking better. The problem with that is it’s almost impossible to time the market because you have to get it right twice. You have to know when’s the right time to sell and go to cash, and then you have to figure out when’s the right time to get back in. And so when people follow that instinct, what can happen is that difference can really hurt you down the line and hurt your returns. And so what we do and how we help clients through that is first of all just being available to pick up the phone and talk through it. We also do a financial plan, and so we’ll reassess your plan and your investments with these new markets in mind and make sure everything’s gonna be okay. And if a change is warranted in the portfolio, we’ll help implement that.
