Arizona Living checks in with Financial Advisor Teresa Bear to answer Monica’s questions about whether to invest or stay clear in this up and down market. Bear acknowledges the last six months have been volatile, but there is good news and bad news. By nature the marked is unpredictable, it goes up and down. While some people try to “time” the market, Bear says “market timing” just doesn’t work. Some people may get up near the top, but the problem is when the market drops. Recently there have been record lows. When it drops people are terrified and Bear says she has not received a lot of calls saying, “I want to invest more money.”
Her advice to investors is to strategically decide where you want to be. If the volatility of the market makes you crazy, you may need to trim down the aggressiveness of your investments. She cautions not to make changes when the market is volatile. Her recommendation is to wait it out. It may be six months or a year, she doesn’t know, but it will happen. Make sure you are in a good diversified portfolio and make sure your investments match with your risk tolerance. She says sometimes it just means not opening those statements when the news of the market is bad.
