Many adjectives can be used to describe the past five years of world history. Whether one is looking at natural disasters, economic whirlwinds, political divides, or even the investment landscape, the last five years have had many challenges. In fact, Consumer Sentiment as measured by the University of Michigan, indicates the 5-year period after The Great Financial Crisis of 2008 in the only period where sentiment has been worse than it is today dating back 40+ years.^ Everything that is going on in the world has people a little down right now.
Yet, despite the whirlwinds of the past five years, the S&P 500 has returned 15.94% annually over this time period, more than doubling!* How is this possible? How is it that such a turbulent five years politically, socially, and economically created such a robust bull market in public stocks?
There are many reasons for it, which we will address another time, but there is a lesson to be learned from all of this: The ability to stay disciplined in one’s investing approach, by not getting too emotional or too caught up in the short-term ups and downs, will greatly impact your investing experience.
Every five year stretch is different. No one knows what the next five years will bring as we close out the 2020s, but our job as money managers and investment professionals is to stay the course through disciplined decision-making and processes. We work tirelessly to understand the timing of your money needs so that we can create a plan specifically to meet your goals.
With the 4th quarter of the year in full stride, and as we march toward the end of the year, we have no doubt the ups and the downs will continue to cause sentiment to bounce around like a pogo stick. Despite the inevitability of the unexpected, having the discipline to stay the course when you have a long-term approach will make a difference.
^Using a 5 year rolling average; Data found at fred.stlouisfed.org
*IVV Fact Sheet at ishares.com as of 9/30/2024