Investments in 2023 will be “rocky”. Stay the course, says the advisor
After some brutal market results in December, some clients wanted to pull the plug and jump out of the market, according to Stacy Francis, a board-certified financial planner and president and CEO of Francis Financial in New York. Investors investing through the ups and downs of 2023 will be glad they did, predicts Francis, a member of the CNBC Financial Advisor Council.
“This is going to be a great year and it’s definitely going to be rocky,” Francis told CNBC.com in February.
However, there could be an upside to weathering this turmoil.
“This is a ride you’ll want to ride because you’re going to make some fantastic portfolio gains by the end of the year,” Francis said.
When difficult conversations inevitably arise amid market volatility, Francis says there are a few things she likes to remind clients of.
1. Put losses in context
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For investors upset by the brutal results in December, Francis said it reminded them of the big market downturn in 2020 following the Covid-19 outbreak.
“We went through that and actually had one of the biggest and most significant rebounds that we’ve seen in history,” Francis said.
Likewise, dismal market results in December were followed by some of the best rebounds in decades in January.
2. Take time to reconsider your strategy
A market drop can make it “incredibly painful” to open your 401(k) or visit the site only to see your posts gone, Francis said.
Those rejections can be a good time to reconsider your approach, she said.
It’s going to be a great year and it’s definitely going to be rocky.
StacyFrancis
President and CEO of Francis Financial
“It’s a great opportunity to catch your breath, recover your portfolio and reassess after this period of real volatility to see if this is the right mix of stocks and bonds [you] long term,” Francis said.
If you’re one to five years from retirement and you’ve suffered big losses, you probably need to rethink your allocation strategy.
3. Resist the urge to follow trends
Cash has now become a much more attractive place to invest your money, with some certificates of deposit paying upwards of 4% interest, while stocks are prone to losses.
But shifting your money from stocks to cash out of nervousness is probably the wrong move because you’ll miss out on market gains, Francis said.
Likewise, clients sometimes approach Francis with an idea they heard at a cocktail party or on the golf course.
For example, customers who want to convert their 401(k) money to Bitcoin after seeing it outperform the stock market.
Francis said she discourages clients from pursuing these ideas, reminding them they might not be able to take a loss if those assets shrink dramatically. like bitcoin did.
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/13/investing-in-2023-will-be-rocky-stay-the-course.html Investments in 2023 will be “rocky”. Stay the course, says the advisor
