With the U.S. stock market falling for eight of the past nine days and dropping 8% during the past week, you are probably just a little bit on edge. After Thursday’s 5% drop in the S&P 500, the index is now down for the year, and the media is having a field day with terms like global meltdown, double dip recession etc.. I can understand the anxiety that you are feeling. It’s only natural.
My advice to you is the same as it was in 2008 (and has been for the past 13 years). Take a deep breath, stay calm, and keep your emotions in check. Successful investing requires us to be patient and have a long term attitude. Successful investors are not market timers. None of us has a crystal ball that tells us where stocks will go in the next month or quarter. But we do know that throughout history, stocks as a group have gone up two out of every three years, and I am confident that investing in a well-diversified portfolio of stocks and bonds remains one of the best ways to create lasting wealth for you and your family.
Looking back for context, we know that after falling 22% during 2002, the S&P 500 rallied 28% in 2003. In 2008, the market dropped a whopping 37%, only to gain 26% in 2009 and 15% in 2010. History is on the side of the patient investor who remembers that investing is a long term process.
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