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How Did That Feel?

[/fusion_text][fusion_text]Congratulations! You just survived the first 10% drop the U.S. stock market has seen in years. How did it feel? If you didn’t notice or found yourself thinking “I wish I had some cash to buy more stocks while they are on sale,” you can stop reading now. That’s how it’s supposed to feel. Such drops are fairly normal in the stock market. You should have the risk of your portfolio set so that it doesn’t upset you when stocks dip a little.

If you were wondering what to do or kicking yourself for not reducing your risk earlier, it’s time to review your investment plan. The stock market just gave us a mulligan. For the non-golfers, that’s an opportunity to redo something. The U.S. stock market is within a few percentage points (at least at the time of this writing) from where it started the year. It went up, it went down, and it recovered a little bit. You’re no worse off than you were at the start of the year.

Nobody can reliably predict when the stock market will go down, but we can reliably say that it will go down from time to time. That’s why you get paid so nicely over decades for investing in stocks – there is risk. So…if you were nervous about a little 10% drop in stocks, it’s time to redo your investment plan. It could also be that you need to turn off CNBC and not follow the market so closely. Let me know if you need help with either.[/fusion_text][separator style_type=”single” top_margin=”” bottom_margin=”” sep_color=”” icon=”” width=”” class=”” id=””][fusion_text]

Legal Disclaimer: These posts do not constitute an offer or recommendation to buy or sell any securities or instruments or to participate in any particular investment or trading strategy. They are for informational purposes only. ASA gathers its data from sources it considers reliable. However, ASA makes no express or implied warranties regarding the accuracy of this information or any opinions expressed by the author and may update or change them without prior notification.

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