The title of this post is what I keep seeing and hearing daily. I joked around with some people at work talking about how I was going to pull everything out of the stock market after the President was diagnosed with Covid-19. The funny thing is, while I was joking, other people said that they fully intend to do just that. This reminded me about how important it is to “stay the course†as we say in the Navy.
It has been clear cut to me that time in the market is more important than timing the market. As we continue down this volatile road of uncertainty, it is important that people do not look at market dips as losing money. YOU ARE NOT LOSING MONEY! Your assets are simply losing value.
Now, let’s take a look at the stock market historically…
Some Bumps Along the Way, but Steady Gains
The portion highlighted in yellow are the dips that happened back in the 1970’s. If you look further back, you can see when the great depression happened in the 1930’s. The main thing I want to point out with this graph is simple… Look at the trend even after all of the dips. What does the Dow Jones continue to do? Over the years, it continues going up…
These dips should be looked at as buying opportunities to purchase stocks at a “discounted†price. Your focus should be on the cost average of each stock you purchase versus the most recent price you paid.
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What are your goals?
How you invest should depend on your lifestyle and your goals. Day traders and swing like to buy into individual stocks and us several indicators to know when to buy and when to sell. Buy and hold investors like index funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and diversifying individual stocks. I happen to be a fan of index funds and ETFs vice individual stocks. With an index fund, you are getting a piece of every company in that fund. If one particular company tanks, you are still safe. Index funds/ETFs like the Dow Jones above are consistent in constantly gaining value over time. I do buy individual stocks just to play around with, but it’s nothing serious. Most of the individual stocks I buy are not even “stocks†because they are mostly Real Estate Investment Trusts (REIT). I like REITs because they are normally steady in value and have exceptional dividend returns. I don’t even collect the dividends from those as I set all of them in to a dividend reinvestment plan (DRIP) back into the fund to reinvest into the REIT and buy more.
While you don’t have to invest the same way I do, you should most definitely have a strategy with the assets you are investing in. If you are new to investing, I would highly recommend that you speak with a professional or thoroughly research the asset class you are thinking about investing in. I am not a financial advisor and am only posting my thoughts and sharing what I am doing. However, I would be happy to assist you on your financial freedom journey. My email is always open if you want to reach out. Hope you all were able to get something out of this article. Also, be sure to check out our podcast.
