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Writer's picturetomrimer

A slightly different direction for the blog

I’d like to apologize to my loyal readers for going so long without making a blog post. The online teaching world is not as easy as many think, either for teachers like me or for students. Anyone who thinks online classes are easy has probably never taken 5-6 at a time, nor taught introductory Finance to 550 students! But I’m not complaining; I love teaching no matter what the method, and I applaud my students (and all students) for coping so well with a very trying and unprecedent set of challenges.

That said, I’m going to resume weekly posts, but in a slightly different way. The blog will still be about personal finance, and will still be focused on helping you manage your money (both now and for the future) in a better way to help you more effectively meet your financial needs and goals. But I’ve decided to alternate posts among writing info for beginners, some slightly more intermediate topics, and more timely news items. I’ll aim for 2 posts a week, maybe 3 on a busy news week, one of which per week will be geared toward current events in finance.

I’d like to announce a bit of good news: my personal finance book is finally in the printing process! The electronic version should be available Nov. 3rd or 4th, with the print version being ready 2-3 business days after that. I’ll post something on LinkedIn on how to order when the books are available.

Speaking of current events, you’ve probably noticed that the stock market has been going haywire again lately. Usually when market volatility picks up for more than a day or two, it signals uncertainty rather than just reacting to a specific event. In this case the uncertainly is swirling around Covid and the U.S. election. And it may be with us for some time, leading to an even more extended period of market volatility.

What should you do about it? I said this before on this blog, and I will say it many times in the future. If you have a long-term financial/investment plan, what you should be doing to position yourself for the coming market volatility is: nothing. Yes, nothing! You can’t predict when the volatility will end, you can’t predict which way the markets will go, so why try to chase something you can’t even see?! Stick to your plan, and ride out the storm. It won’t last, and in the long run you’ll have a much better chance of achieving the things you want to financially achieve in life if you resist the urge to predict the unpredictable, and put down blind bets with the money you need to make the course of the rest of your life better!

What if you don’t have a long-term plan? Create one! Even if you are 16-19 years old, it’s never too early to start yourself down the path to a better life. You probably won’t be able to create a detailed, solid long-term plan until you embark on a career, but you can certainly start to map out a direction in which you can start to build assets, and continue to build them as you get older. And if you only have (or plan to buy) 1-2 stocks in your portfolio to get started, that’s ok, just be aware that general market volatility can lead to some pretty big swings in the price of the stock or stocks you own as well. Don’t panic! If the reasons you bought the stock in the first place are still valid, try to ride out the storm just as you would with a long-term plan.

Volatility is nothing to be afraid of in itself, but what is scary about it is what it leads some people to do, and the bad decisions it leads some people to make. Try to resist the urge to be one of those people that set themselves back and delay the achievement of their goals.

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