What Our Clients Are Saying
S&P 500 Closes at New All-Time High
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August 20, 2020Yesterday, the S&P 500 closed at a new, all time high.
In other words, it has completely recovered from the “down-34%-in-just-33-days” battering we lived through in late February through March of this year.
Of course, the world economy and other parts of the global stock market (small companies, value stocks, international stocks, etc.) still have a ways to go to fully recover but let’s take a moment to celebrate the resiliency of the stock market and look forward with hope to the day that the entire economy will have fully recovered from one of the deepest and certainly one of the fastest downturns any of us have seen in our lifetimes.
I’m happy to report that not one of the clients that works with us abandoned their long-term, planning-driven, investment approach through this downturn! In one form or another (the media, the investment industry, and sometimes even friends and family) people have been told they were crazy to stay invested, to stick with the plan, and to allow the businesses they’ve invested in to work their way out of the mess.
Frequently, the hardest thing to do in investing for the long term is nothing.
But “nothing” is almost always the right thing to do when you’ve built a long term financial plan and are working that plan year-in and year-out. Just keep working the plan. That’s what we have continued to do and it has paid off.
How many people do you know that wanted to get out of the stock market “just until after the election” or “until the economy fully re-opens” or “until we’ve developed a vaccine for this thing”? Those people have missed out on some part of what has amounted to a more than a 51% run up in the S&P 500 since the bottom on March 23rd. Long term investors didn’t.
If you are diversified in smaller companies, value companies, and international companies, you still have a bit to go to get fully back to even and, I know, the market could always go back down from here. But, for a moment, let’s recognize that absolutely no one predicted the S&P 500 would recover this fast. Getting out of stocks (which was the general message of the investment media over the last five months) has proven to be a massive mistake.
Being committed to investing in stocks even on their worst days has allowed investors to capture returns on a great recovery.
Disclosure:
Tumwater Wealth Management is a registered investment adviser and may only conduct business in states where it is registered or exempt. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. Investments involve risk and, unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial adviser and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed herein. Past performance is not indicative of future performance.
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