I’m thinking of the Beatles song today, “It’s a Long and Winding Road”. The reason that I bring this up is that last Friday was the close of the third quarter. The beginning of last week the market was great and then, of course, the market took it all away and then some more. By the very end of last week, which was the very end of the quarter, it was negative. That means the very next quarterly statement you receive is going to be negative because the week ended very negatively. Here I am recording this on the first day of the new quarter, the fourth quarter, and of course look at what it is now. This is after the market has closed today from Forbes, “the Dow surges 760 points as the market hopes for a positive fourth quarter” … “up and down and all around it's a long and winding road”.
Instead of talking about the market: what it will do, what it won't do, what it could do, what it has done, etc. let me just state that your quarterly statement that's going to be coming out is probably going to be… frustrating. That's the best way to describe it, but again let's look at what's happening at the time, and what people are really concerned about. Our job is to watch the numbers for you! Your job is to live your life!
When we get together with clients on a regular basis, one of the things that we have them fill out is a list of preparatory questions. While I was out of the office last week, I asked the team to put together a list of all the preparatory questions that we have received during the year of 2022 and then list all the biggest concerns of 2022. Here is a synopsis of what you have told us in these surveys:
- the number one question… Will I be able to retire?
- Inflation. Inflation in the market. Inflation because of the fear of the market being affected by inflation and interest rates going higher and higher. Will we be able to afford the loans for cars or for homes? How is that going to affect us? How will that affect our future?
- Political/End of the World concerns.
Those top three were the main concerns listed with the most responses, and then we drop from double digits to single digits. Things that people are less concerned about:
- Am I in the right investments? Our job is to make certain that the investments are appropriate for where you are and who you are.
- The next is Health: as people get older and older there is that concern of their health.
- Government overreach was the next concern.
- Losing money. This is really interesting that losing money was actually all the way down at concern #8 because those clients that have been with us over the years, they know things come and go and if given time, they've always seen things get back on track.
- The last thing was job security. That probably goes into the concerns about political and world concern.
Let me talk more about those first 3 concerns. Number 1: Will I be able to retire? Please engage with us on a regular basis. We want to know where you are mentally. We already know where you are financially, but we need to put those two things together to make sure that you end up where you would like to be. Number 2: Inflation and inflation in the market. Our job is to watch both of those things and do the calculations and run through the numbers so you have the best chance of success as possible. Number 3: Political and world concerns. Here's my recommendation: I spend about 10 minutes every single morning watching the Morning News, but after the first 10 minutes everything after that, as far as I'm concerned, gets to be noise, gets to be negative. The saying goes, “Negative in… Negative out, Positive in… Positive out”. After that first 10 minutes, I try to do some positive things that will lend positivity back into my life. My recommendation is that you consider doing the same thing for yourself.
If one of our team members contacts you about getting together, it's time to take a look at your information, time to take a look at your accounts. The reason we're doing that is not to bug you. The reason that we're doing that is we want to make sure that you are engaged: you know where you are, and you know the direction that you are heading. We want you to be informed. if you have a question along the way, know that we are always available. Also realize that things change on a day-to-day basis. Where the market was great today, it was lousy last week, but the snapshot in time that you will be receiving for your third quarter is based on the last day of last week, not on this week. So, realize it is a moving target and that's something that we take care of and that we are looking at and monitoring each and every day.
