I am not going to bury the lead: “short-term” does not apply to your long-term investment goals. While everyone has different ideas and goals for those long term assets, it shouldn’t matter if you are 5 years or 35 years away, your investment allocation should already be set appropriately for that time horizon. But, oh, the news these days. What is an investor to think?
Here are my random thoughts:
Scenario #1: My high school age daughter recently had some issues with the browser she usually uses on her computer, but the computer was otherwise working fine. She got into a bit of a panic. She fumbled around with it for a while. Then her mom said, “have you tried just turning it off and back on again?” All was well after that.
Long-term goal lesson #1: Turn off the doom and gloom financial commentator on TV, radio, podcast, YouTube, etc. Just unplug for a while. When you go back to it, you will find there is a new “disaster du jour”, but the big picture (like my daughter’s computer) will be OK.
Scenario #2: A participant in one of the 401(k) plans I manage called me up to say she wanted to be more aggressive in her investment choices. She has 25+ years until retirement. We talked it over together, looked at a few of her life details, and decided this is a wholly appropriate action for her to take.
Long-term goal lesson #2: You are not saving and investing in a trade war or the next presidential election. It is a long-term goal unique to you; it will still be relevant long after the news stories are no longer new. Optimism and planning in relation to your goals is never a bad idea.
So, as summer comes to a close, my friend, maybe you have a financial goal or two to start tackling before another year gets away from you. This time of year also happens to be prime training season for fall marathons (yes!) and like I always say to my runner friends struggling to get started, “Even just one mile is better than zero miles.” The same applies to your money — get started! Give me a call! Let’s make a plan!
p.s. If you have not seen the awesome graphic I posted about this topic on the Facebook page earlier this week, check it out here.
