No quality long-term decisions will be made when someone is feeling panicked or euphoric. This is where good financial advice and a sober second opinion prove valuable.
It’s no secret interest rates are low. Have ten grand in the bank? If you’re lucky with a ‘high interest’ account, at the end of the year you’ll have made $200. That’s before the tax man and inflation come calling.
It was an unceremonious occurrence. A few minutes into trading on the third of February 2020 the ASX released a list of companies whose securities had been suspended from trading for an unacceptable period of time.
Markets were off their highs. Trump was being Trump. August had been one of those months. Off nearly 5% in a week. Sideways for the next three. A slight upward burst at the end, but the media had been salivating at the prospect of more losses.
One of the most important things for investors is mastering the ability to sit in their seat over the long term. This means not reacting to markets when they don’t go the way they’d hoped and accepting that sometimes there will be bouts of frustration.
Whether a decline month happens in the first month or the tenth month, there’s no avoiding your portfolio going down at some stage – unless it’s exceptionally conservative. The concern with the first month is the psychology of immediately giving up some of your capital.
