Written by Tyson Ray, FORM Wealth Advisors | CFP®, CExP®, CIMA®
In a recent blog post, I encouraged you to go enjoy yourself because…it’s summer! I want to reiterate that suggestion and remind you that proper planning can ease the constant uncertainty about what the markets are doing. Uncertainty makes investors uneasy because they don’t know how policies and world events will impact corporate profits.
The constant ups and downs of the market are a fact of life
The old saying goes that two things are certain in this life: taxes and death. I’d like to revise that saying to add a third certainty in our lives: the constant ups and downs of the markets. This is such a prevalent truth, in fact, that in January 2023, I launched a new video series called Up or Down™ to provide perspective and reassurance about the constant market fluctuations.
The point of these Up and Down™ videos is to point out that any given day, week, month or year, in some cases, shouldn’t matter when we’re planning for the rest of your life and the lives of your loved ones.
Whenever we turn on the TV, follow a news feed, go online or read anything, the constant onslaught of negativity can easily increase our worry about the future and erode our confidence. Every day, we hear or read something that makes us feel like maybe we should be reacting or doing something different.
Often, our clients feel like they have finally come to terms with the fact that the markets will always fluctuate. But then they hear or read about the unknowns associated with — and dizzying changes to — tariffs, trade deals, international conflicts, interest rate adjustments or something else that’s happening in the world. Paying too much attention to these reports causes investors to lose the confidence they had.
It’s important to focus on your long-term goals and your financial plan — and to ignore the news.
The importance of perspective
The perspective I want to share here has three points:
- It is not productive to worry about something you cannot control (i.e., the markets). Worrying about tomorrow robs us of today’s potential joy.
- The best thing to do in light of the market’s constant ups and downs is to stay the course. Stay invested. Ignore the news!
- At FORM Wealth, you can rely on us to manage your portfolio and to adjust your customized financial plan as needed — so you don’t have to. This means you can go out and enjoy what’s left of the summer!
We are your partner for life as you make plans for the future. When we work with you, we learn about you and your family, your concerns, your current situation, and your hopes and dreams. And then we design a financial plan that will enable you to have the money you need to afford the life you want to have.
That’s planning, and it eases constant uncertainty.
When you make planning a priority, you don’t need to worry about all the unknowns. You can continue to focus on your long-term goals, using your customized financial plan as your map to the future — and enjoy your life.
Continued reason for optimism
Despite all the news about taxes, tariffs, federal layoffs, interest rates and other economic issues, the S&P 500, Nasdaq Composite and Dow Jones Industrial Average all finished the week with gains on July 25th. Also, more than 82 percent of the 169 S&P 500 companies that have reported to date have beaten Wall Street’s expectations.
Here is another reason for optimism. Since 2017, we have been dealing with uncertainties regarding the tax code, but now the One Big Beautiful Bill Act has passed. Now we finally know the details, and some of the provisions of the new legislation will be permanent. The IRS has about 90 days to dot the i’s, cross the t’s and clarify more of the specifics.
Passage of this legislation provides us with more certainty about the markets and tax planning — and also for financial planning.
But even if we didn’t have these specific, current signs of optimism, we still know that we’ll be OK if we stay the course. This overall story has a happy ending: the markets will always end up with a gain, eventually! For 150 years, market downturns have come and gone. And, although they have varied in terms of length and severity, the market has always recovered and reached new highs.
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There is comfort in knowing you have a dynamic, detailed plan and that you can have a conversation with us any time you have questions or concerns.
