Commentary

In my April 4, edition, I addressed the hit on the market to the 162 million Americans who own stock, reminding you that patience is a virtue, don’t panic when you see your 401(k) going down.

Then, on April 5, I cautioned you about listening to the talking heads on one of those leftist networks or reading an article by someone with questionable financial knowledge.  They are generally not attuned to economics and the market.

For example.  On MSNBC’s Chris Jansing Reports, the host and her guest ominously focused on the 401 (k) and the danger for retirees, assuming the 401(k) holders are 100 percent invested in stocks, an irresponsible position. It revealed she knows zero about investment strategies and the basics of financial planning, citing scenarios using “the latest numbers out there.”

With that, I thought about the individual depending exclusively on his 401(k) listening to her as she turned to her guest, Stuart Stevens, an anti-Trumper, for advice in how the Democrats should “message that.”

“Generally, people are very skeptical of any good that is going to come, but they will embrace the harm because they’ll see what it’s doing to them,” he said, suggesting the typical Democrat scare tactic of repeating the negative “over and over and over.”

While I am fortunate to have a wealth management advisor, I have had reason to trust over the years through market ups and downs, I am still naturally curious to read what’s being said about asset management.

In “How to Think Clearly in A Time of Market Panic,” a column by Jason Zweig in the Wall Street Journal, he reminds us that “With President Trump seeking to overturn decades of globalization and override the world’s trading rules, markets are in turmoil for good reason. 

“It’s an event unprecedented in most investor’s lifetimes, intensifying our fear and stress.

“You’d be foolish to think nothing has changed, and you can’t just with the turbulence away. To prevail over this chaos, you must think clearly at a time when many investors and policymakers are an emotional mess.

I am not a fiduciary, and this blog does not provide investment recommendations, so I will not detail Zweig’s proposal of developing a three-section pyramid of actions designed to help you through this period.

Quoting a colleague, he provided good common-sense advice, “we can and should engage in extreme thinking, (but) we should not engage in extreme acting.

“If you overhaul your entire portfolio in response,” Zweig writes, “you aren’t just acting as if you know what the market is going to do next, which is close to impossible.  You’re also acting as if you know what Donald Trump is going to do next, which is also impossible.

Be cautious and smart.

May God continue to bless the United States of America.