Good morning & happy Monday!
“The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.”
– Chinese proverb
My friends, 5 years ago yesterday, Monday, March 9, 2020, I penned my first Monday morning memo titled “My job, their job, your job,” during the middle of the COVID-19 market panic.
Happy Monday!
As we start a new week after the busy last 2 weeks, I wanted to spend just a moment to review my business’s mission statement that is on the bottom of every email I send: “Providing clarity, perspective & guidance to priority driven people & businesses.”
I feel that given the last few weeks a little perspective might be helpful:
My job: to build a financial plan for my clients so they can meet their financial objectives … and then do everything within my power to make sure my clients stick to the plan.
Their job (the media): very simple … to scare you (it keeps you tuned into your TV sets & refreshing the webpage … the more scared you are the more ads they sell and the more money they make)
Your job: tune out the hype (turn off the TV) … the ups & downs of the market are a natural, normal & healthy part of investing … this too shall pass (I know this is way easier said than done, but please trust me)
I’ll give you a call this week to answer any questions you may have. In the meantime, feel free to call, email or text me or any of my team members.
It is a privilege to partner with you.
As you can tell, I’ve gotten much wordier in my Monday Morning Memos since then 😉.
As I typed those words on March 9, 2020, the S&P 500 had closed at 2,972.37 on Friday March 6, 2020, and on the Monday this email went out, we witnessed the S&P 500 dropping to 2,746.56 … a 7.60% single day loss. Two weeks later (Monday, March 23, 2020) the market hit its lowest point with the S&P 500 closing at 2,237.40.
My friends, today the S&P 500 is hovering around 5,700, roughly double where it was 5 years ago today!
Let that sink in for a minute. Double in 5 years … and that doesn’t even include dividends.
I want us to go back to the feelings we were all having at that time.
That very day, Monday, March 9, 2020, Italy imposed a nationwide lockdown.
Wednesday, March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic.
Roughly 1 week later, Thursday, March 19, 2020, California became the first state in the U.S. to implement a statewide lockdown. Every state followed suit in the days that followed.
We were scared. We were confused. We were lonely. We didn’t know who to trust (remember 2-weeks to flatten the curve?). Speculation ran rampant. Fear was everywhere. On top of that we saw the fastest drop of the S&P 500 in history.
It was a really dark time in human history.
Now that we have made it through it, what are the lessons we learned?
We can be cynical and say things like I learned to not trust the government, the media, the pharmaceutical companies, or anyone for that matter.
But if we are wise, we can have the approach John Maxwell proposes in his book ‘Failing Forward’: “The difference between average people and achieving people is their perception of and response to failure.”
My friends, we are the achievers because we refused to let the temporary setback of COVID derail our financial future. You are benefiting today from the decisions you made 5 years ago.
And I have good news 😊 You will most likely have other opportunities to practice this again. Another market downturn almost undoubtedly will happen. When? Your guess is as good as mine. But, when it happens, we can use the lessons we learned during the COVID crash to be wiser investors, smarter financial managers, and greater wealth accumulators.
Thank you for the trust you have placed in me, our team, and our financial planning process. We will continue to work hard to provide you with the best guidance possible going forward regardless of market conditions.
Make it a great week ahead.