Don’t look now, but…
…actually that’s it. Just don’t look.
Who knew a single man could crash global markets and put “global recession” on the lips of every financial and economic talking head across the planet?
I certainly haven’t seen this before. No one has.
And yet… I’m still not worried.
Here’s the thing… the cause for downturns like this is almost always NEW.
Global Pandemic that shut down the whole world?
Mortgages handed out like candy at Halloween to anyone who can fog a mirror?
Profitless companies trading at outer-space valuations on nothing but a hope and a dream?
When investors panic, it’s always because “it’s different this time.”
But if it’s always “different this time”, is it really?
As I’ve written before, after our last 3 black swan events Mr. Market marched on:
POST-COVID :
1 year: up 75%
THE GREAT RECESSION:
– 1-year: up 69%
– 5-year: up 178%
– 10-year: up 306%
INTERNET BUBBLE:
– 1-year: up 34%
– 5-year: up 102%
– 10-year: up 86% (ran up against the Great Recession)
So we have a history of recovering from the never-seen-before’s.
The Doppler effect of these is incredibly strong and in the moment can be downright deafening.
But if you’re invested correctly – i.e. your financial goals are aligned properly with how you’re invested – then this will be a distant memory on the other side too.
So in 15 years when we’re panicked about the robots taking over the world, we’ll look back, remember that we recovered from even the Trump Dump, shrug our shoulders and invest on.
This too shall pass.
