First Quarter 2018 Market Review
- US Stock Market: -0.6%
- International Developed Stocks: -2.0%
- Emerging Markets Stocks: +1.4%
- Global Real Estate: -5.8%
- US Bond Market: -1.5%
- Global Bond Market ex US: +.9%
Embarking on a long-term financial plan is a lot like sailing around the world. The voyage won’t always go to plan and there will likely be rough seas. Nevertheless, the odds of reaching your destination increase greatly if you are prepared, flexible, patient, and well-advised.
A mistake many inexperienced sailors make is not having any kind of plan or strategy. They embark without a clear sense of their destination. And once they do decide, they often find themselves lost at sea in the wrong boat with inadequate provisions.
Likewise, in planning an investment journey, you need to decide on your goal. A first step might be to consider whether the goal is realistic and achievable. For instance, while you may long to retire in the south of France, you may not be prepared to sacrifice your needs today to satisfy that distant desire.
If you can’t live with the volatility, you can change your plan. If the goal looks unachievable, you can lower your sights. If it doesn’t look as if you’ll arrive on time, you can extend your journey. Of course, not everyone’s journey is the same. Neither is everyone’s destination.
We take different routes to different places, and we meet a range of challenges and opportunities along the way.
For all of us, it’s crucial that we are prepared for our journeys in the right vessel, keep our destinations in mind, stick with the plan, and have a trusted navigator to chart our courses and keep us on target.
