Do you know how to make a pencil?

Why is the US stock market trading near all-time highs? That’s a question some of our clients are asking right now – and many more are thinking about it without vocalizing it. With the ongoing effects of COVID-19 being felt all around us, it’s natural to be skeptical of stocks going up.

Imagine for a moment that we’re past the worst of the COVID scare. Imagine also that you aren’t watching or reading political news. Then live a typical day in America. Just how good do we have it?

A look at The Wealth Group's GOOD news from 2020.

There is always a market correction coming. We don’t know if it will happen next week, next month, or next year. Concern about a coming correction is not a good enough reason not to invest, because that concern will never go away.

I’m quick to admit that owning – and holding – stocks is not easy. I’ll never forget the moment a close family member (who shall remain nameless) told me in August 2011: “I never want to own stocks again. Get me out of stocks – completely.”

With this year's election just a month away, the temptation to [attempt to] time the market is as strong as ever. Our clients and friends are asking, "how will the stock market react to the election?"

It hasn’t always been this easy to invest in businesses. Writing of the 15th and 16th centuries in Europe, scholar Wilfred McClay writes: “The rapid expansion of trade was remaking the social and political map of Europe, at the same time that explorers were redrawing the physical map. In earlier eras, wealth and power had rested in the hands of those who owned land, but that was about to change. The years of expanding seaborne travel saw the rising economic and political power of a merchant class made up of those traders who had become wealthy from the risks and rewards of expanding commerce.”

This past weekend, my family and I did some post-summer/pre-fall outside work. We were digging through a bed of rocks that surrounds our house, which meant tearing through the lining underneath and burrowing 4-6 inches deep. My 13-year-old paused for a moment and asked, "Isn't there an easier way to do this?"

If you have spent any amount of time with me in one of our conference rooms, you know I am a big fan of a good story. However, while stories can be persuasive (and hopefully entertaining), statistics are much better guides for decision-making.

“Investing is not a game where the guy with the 160 IQ beats the guy with the 130 IQ. Once you have ordinary intelligence, what you need is the temperament to control the urges that get other people into trouble in investing.” —Warren Buffett

Our family's Spring Break trip to Florida in 2000 took place during the infamous dot-com bubble burst. I can vividly remember my dad's reaction to the news of the bursting of the tech bubble. He had some of his portfolio (I'm not sure how much) invested in dot-com stocks via the Nasdaq Composite Index, which declined by 25% that week of our Spring Break. It ultimately took 15 years for the Nasdaq to get back to its high from the year 2000.