Two Charts that Speak to a Consistent & Disciplined Investment Approach
An American President usually gets too much blame and too much credit for economic and stock market performance over the course of their presidency. There is the element of timing and uncontrollable events that can have a large impact on the figures below. Consider the Bush II era which began during the Tech bust but also included the 911 terrorist attacks, housing boom, and beginning of the subsequent housing bust which Obama partially inherited.There is no shortage of articles that will tell you what impact a Clinton or Trump presidency will have upon the equity markets which is basic non-sense because no one knows. The best decision when it comes to politics is too keep it out of your portfolio decisions.
With that said, there is never going to be an absolute perfect time to invest in the equity markets. Market timing has been proven to be a risky and in most cases an unprofitable investment strategy in the long-run. I try to instill in both current and potential clients that having a consistent investment approach with an overarching layer of discipline should prove to profitable over the long-term. And when I say long-term I mean greater than 5 years.Andrew Adams, an analyst at Raymond James who put together the chart below writes, "For most people, it can be a tough psychological battle to buy when the market is making new all-time highs since no one wants to risk getting in right before a major market top. Yet, history has shown us that you don't have to time it perfectly to make money in stocks in the long run."
I believe that these two charts demonstrate that no matter who may be in the oval office or at what level the equity markets may be trading at, a discipline and consistent investment strategy will likely provide a higher probability of investment success in order to achieve your financial and life goals.What I am Reading
- This Is How To Be Productive: 5 New Secrets Proven By Research (Barking Up The Wrong Tree)
- Building Failure Into Your Process (A Wealth of Common Sense)
- Your Scarcest Resource (HBR)
- You have to Invest (A Wealth of Common Sense)