Common Sen$e: A Word from a Licensed Financial Planner

ART WOOD

If you’ve read my articles for a while, you know I’m a big fan of having a “team” of experts that help you navigate all areas of life, especially financially. While I feel like I know more than the average bear when it comes to all things financial, I am not a licensed financial planner. I set out to write this article about the turbulence in the market over the last few months, and realized I would be giving you much better info if I reached out to my “team” to help.

Jordan Girton of Edward Jones in Tucker is a certified financial planner, and I asked him the following question in hopes of lending some guidance in these crazy times.

“Jordan, my 401k is down 20% and I am hearing all rumors of a recession. I am scared. What should I do?”

Here is Jordan’s reply:

“Everything you read or hear about the market right now is bad. You hear everything from the war in Ukraine to seeing $5 or $6 per gallon at the pump. The news keeps talking about an impending recession and your 401k or IRA just seems to keep going down with no end in sight.

“If you feel like you just can’t take it anymore, and you want to cash out, I want you to remember a few things. First, is that downturns are normal. Since 1947, there have been fourteen bear or down markets or one about every 5.5 years. But the second thing to remember is, that after every one of those downturns, the market has proven to be an effective way to grow your wealth, because every downturn has been followed by an upturn that eventually sets new market highs. The third thing to remember is that historically those upturns have lasted significantly longer than the downturns. Bear markets average 9.5 months while the bull or up markets average about 6.5 years.

“So, what to do? The key to any long-term goal when investing is having a plan. Hopefully, you have a trusted advisor who knows that downturns are normal, upturns always follow downturns, and upturns last significantly longer than downturns. You should have a plan based on that knowledge, which means nothing has changed and the best thing you can do is stick with the plan. Patience and diversification are your friends. There is a saying in investing, ‘It is time in the market not timing the market.’ After all, you don’t lose money until you sell!”

Thank you, Jordan! Those are great words of wisdom, and I could not have said it better. There are folks who want to get in when it is hot and stay in even when it is not. Those people have a plan, but it involves much more risk than the average person wants to bear. It is not a sprint. It is a marathon. If you surround yourself with the right team and have a plan, and have a little patience, typically you end up better than where you started.

ART WOOD (NMLS #118234) is the branch manager of The Art Wood Mortgage Team of Goldwater Bank, located at 2341 Main Street in downtown Tucker. “Tucker’s Mortgage Guy” for sixteen years, he is a former Tucker Tiger (Class of ’92), and co-founder and organizer of Taste of Tucker. Family guy, community guy, and definitely not your typical mortgage guy - it’s all that he does that makes Art Wood who he is. Contact him at 678.534.5834 or art.wood@goldwaterbank.com.

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