During unstable times, it can be tempting to put your investment plan on pause until calmer times prevail, but that would often be a mistake for long-term investors.
Instead, we recommend using down markets as times to upgrade the quality of your portfolio and harvest tax losses if they are available. For clients who have cash to put to work, we develop strategies for averaging into the markets while they are down, and for those who are comfortable taking on a bit more risk, we look at gradually increasing equity allocations as prices decline. Ultimately we have seen that most long term investing success hinges on discipline.
Raymond James posted the below piece recently, with some great charts and insights.
If you are a client and would like to discuss any of the above strategies with us, please let us know. If you aren’t a client, but are looking for help and advice, you are welcome to schedule a 15 minute consultation.