Is now a good time to be in the market? The answer is simple (for long term goals): “It is always a good time to be in the market,” says Evelyn Zohlen, a Certified Financial Planner™ professional. “Whether or not you are in the market has nothing to do with what is happening today. It has everything to do with your timing … your goals …. [and] what you are trying to achieve.”
Consider this: in any given year, the majority of the global market’s return happens in 5 or 6 days, on average. This means that timing the market is going to be fairly difficult. The best strategy is to stay in the market long-term. Kent Kramer, CFP®, explains this very well in the video when he states that he is a “short-term agnostic and a long-term optimist when it comes to the performance of the markets.” By this he means that we really don’t know what the market is going to do in the near term. No one can accurately predict the short-term performance of the markets. However, academic evidence has shown, that over long-term periods of time (15+ years or more), the markets always go up and we have every reason to believe this will continue to be the case.
Instead of worrying about the short term “risk of being in the market,” the more important question is: “What is the risk of NOT being in the market.”
About Christopher Jones
Christopher Jones is the Founder and President of Sparrow Wealth Management, a fee-only financial planning and investment management firm. Before entering the investment field, Chris was a management consultant for Deloitte Monitor. He graduated summa cum laude from Brigham Young University with a B.S. in Economics and a minor in Business Management.
