Given the events that have transpired over the past few weeks, it seems like a good time to pass along a friendly reminder that changing your investment plan based on emotions and market conditions has never been a recipe for success.

The past weeks have seen a lot of uncertainty in the news and financial markets have fallen in reaction to these events. 

So, you might ask yourself where do things go from here?  Well with the average bear market decline in the past being 32.7% and lasting 367 days ! , it is safe to say we are still some distance from average.  So, could things get worse before they get better?  The short answer is yes it could, but also that nobody knows.

 As behavioural finance author Morgan Housel writes:
 
“If you can accept that it might get worse before it gets better, and if you can accept that declines lay the foundation for future returns, you will be much better off than the person who thinks otherwise.”¹

To those that say “well this time it’s different”, let’s remind them that we never had a housing and mortgage crisis that rocked the global financial system before….. until we did. We never had an attack the size of 9/11 before…. until we did.  We never had a global pandemic that caused the entire world to lockdown before….until we did.

So remember, this too shall pass…. and once it does, the next crisis will be knocking at the door. There will always be a reason to sell, illustrated by the image at the bottom of this email.

We do understand that declines like this are difficult for some to experience and we understand the gravity of our responsibility to you, so we want to pass along a reminder of our guiding principles for investment success;

Faith in The Future: For financial markets to work properly over the long term there needs to be periods of growth and consolidation to keep excesses in check. We’re confident people will solve problems and become more productive over time.

Patience: The portfolios we recommend are built to withstand these cycles which are an expected part of the process. The portfolio managers are using this volatility to rebalance and set themselves up for future growth.

Discipline: Your investment plan does not expect positive double-digit returns every year like those experienced in 2023 and 2024, and your plan assumes that corrections/bear markets will occur from time to time. All success comes from sticking to a plan and not re-acting to events.

“I do know panicking will not help you make better investment decisions. Times like these are why you have an investment plan in the first place.”² – Ben Carlson

Try to forget about the day-to-day gyrations of the market and do your best to ignore the markets over the next few months until this too passes, and remember,

1. Have a plan
2. Select the proper asset mix for your goals
3. Take a long term view
4. Be diversified
5. Don’t try to time the markets

If you have any questions, please contact us as we are here to help you stay on track as best we can.

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Sources:

1. https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2025/04/how-bad-could-this-get/ ↩︎
2. https://collabfund.com/blog/good-enough/ ↩︎