I wish the right advice was different. It would be so much easier to tell clients I agree, let’s flee to safety and stop this pain. It would be so much easier to just move to cash, so that we don’t have to worry about the effects of the Corona Virus on the financial markets. It would be so much easier to offer you some conservative product that promises to have no downside. The truth of the matter is that in order to have the upside we have enjoyed over the last couple years, we must be able to endure through the downside we are in currently. You simply cannot have one without the other and anyone that tells you different is selling you something.

The more difficult, but right advice, is to stick with your plan, because the market has always recovered, even through events just like this and events even larger. The right advice is to help you stick to your plan, not because we don’t want to make a change, but because historically it is the only way to get you the investment returns you need.

After this is long in the rearview and everything feels great again, we will do this all over again for some other reason. This is why investing is hard and why not everyone can do it. We can help, by giving you the advice you may not want to hear… Stay the course, this too shall pass.

We are all pretty scared right now and I hope all of you know that we take our responsibilities to you seriously. Sometimes, especially in dark times, we need to add some color to the situation and maybe share a laugh. I hope you appreciate that being lighthearted will not change the situation we are in, but it might help us feel better for a short time. I want to share with you a video of Burt White speaking at a conference I attended a couple years ago. On top of being the Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer at LPL Financial, he is one of the most entertaining speakers I have had the privilege to see. The video below is his comparison of being eaten by an anaconda snake and a bear stock market. Spoiler alert, you, your plan, and our partnership is the “knife.” Watch and you’ll understand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNIe1xR6MBw&feature=youtu.be

I hope you appreciate the lighthearted message and I hope this brightens your day even just a little.