By david kopyc
In January of this year, I wrote an article about what I anticipated for the stock market in the year 2020. In that article, I mentioned a Black Swan Event and little did I know that it would come to fruition.
The pandemic has had a dramatic impact on investors, employers, employees, deficit spending and the possibility our lives may have changed forever. Words such as social distancing, masks, freedom, travel, congregations, concerts, etc., have all taken on a new meaning to all of us. We will all look back at this event in our lives with different thoughts, opinions, and memories, whether they be good or bad.
As I write this article, the NASDAQ has just hit an all time high, and the Dow and S&P 500 are a few points shy of reaching their all time high. I bring this up because so many individuals went to cash when the pandemic came roaring into our lives and the doom and gloom that was predicted has not come to Wall Street that so many of the Monday Morning Quarterbacks said would happen.
I’ve been in the Financial Services business for 38 years and the words that always resonate with me when market volatility and uncertainty is upon us: Don’t try to time it.
From the internet bubble, flash crash and financial meltdown, the common theme has been that the markets are resilient and the pendulum always swings too far to the bull and bear side of the fence.
For those investors that went to cash and stayed there, they have missed one of the greatest rallies in the history of the stock market, when so many headlines have caused great anxiety and concern.
Historically, low interest rates are having a positive and negative impact on business and individuals, but savers that want safety and guarantees are being penalized by the interest rate they can get for that protection. Some money market accounts are paying higher rates of returns than CDs and guaranteed interest contracts. Because of this environment of low interest rates, some investors have allocated more of their assets into riskier types of investments to receive a higher rate of return or dividends from stocks to pay their bills.
Make sure that your portfolio is allocated to your risk profile and you understand all the investments you are allocated into. These are unprecedented times and the retiree or future retiree that has to create a pension for their retirement years needs to be informed and educated on the decisions they are making with these retirement assets.
I highly recommend that you work with a financial advisor, and sooner is better than later.
We will get through this and our lives will be forever changed, but we still live in the greatest country on earth.