FINANCIAL FOCUS: Stay Calm on the Investment “Roller Coaster”

This article was written by Edward Jones for use by your local Edward Jones Financial Advisor, Adam Casper

Unless you live near an amusement park that does a lot of advertising, you probably didn’t know that Aug. 16 is National Roller Coaster Day. Actual roller coasters provide people with thrills. But as an investor, how can you stay calm on the “roller coaster” of the financial markets?

Here are some suggestions:

• Know what’s in front of you. If you’ve ever ridden a roller coaster in the dark, you may find it scarier than if you boarded it in daylight – after all, it can be unsettling not to know where you’re going. The same can be said about investing: If you have no idea what’s in front of you, you might find the journey unnerving – and if that happens, you could make panicky decisions, which are usually bad ones. So prepare for the inevitable market volatility – it’s a normal part of the investment landscape.
• Buckle up. When you’re on a roller coaster, you need to buckle your seat belt or use a restraint. You want to have the excitement of the ride, but you certainly don’t want to take unnecessary risks. And you can enjoy some of the excitement of investing without incurring more risk than you are comfortable with, too. One way to lower your risk level is to diversify across a range of investments – stocks, bonds, government securities, and so on. That way, if a market downturn primarily affects just one type of investment, you’ll have some protection. However, although diversification can reduce the impact of volatility on your portfolio, it can’t protect against all losses or guarantee a profit.
• Choose a strategy for the journey. Different people have different ways of handling a roller coaster ride. Some like to throw their hands up, enjoying the feeling of abandon, while others hold on tightly to the bar in front of them. When you invest, you also need a strategy that works for you, and the best one may be the simplest: Buy quality investments and hold them for the long term. How long is “long term”? It could be 10, 20, 30 years or more. Famed investor Warren Buffet says his favorite holding period is “forever.” If you’ve chosen a mix of quality investments appropriate for your risk tolerance, you may be able to hold them until either your goals change or the investments themselves undergo some transformation.
• Stay for the whole “ride.” When you hop on a roller coaster, you’ve got no choice – you’re staying until the ride is over. As an investor, though, you can exit the investment world whenever you like. But if you take a “time out” from investing every time the market drops, you risk still being out of the market when it rallies – and the early stages of a rally are often when the biggest gains occur. Furthermore, if you keep investing during a “down” market, you’ll be buying shares when their price has dropped, which means your dollars can go further – and you’ll be following one of the basic rules of investing: “Buy low.”

You can’t take out all the twists and turns of the investment road, but by following the above suggestions, you can help make the ride less stressful – and possibly more rewarding.

The Village of Newark is pleased to announce that IEC Electronics Corporation made a long term commitment to the community on February 28, 2018. They announced during a news conference that they will be moving into a 150,000 square-foot facility in the Silver Hill Technology Park with plans to create up to 362 new jobs while retaining 463 jobs. The company plans to begin operations at the new facility in mid-2019.

Along with IEC’s project there will be several other construction and infrastructure jobs going on around the Village in the coming months. They include such projects as the expansion of Craft 120, the filling of the former vacant Rite Aid building with the expansion of a local business in our Village, and the creation of a “Street of Shops” along the canal. Along with these there will be a new café, a new brewery, and the renovation of an existing restaurant along the canal. Each of these is within walking distance of our downtown corridor.

Crosstown Construction will begin the planning approval process to construct market rate senior apartments off of the north side of Lincoln Road while the new owner of the two buildings located at the southeast intersection of South Main Street and East Union Street has plans for upgrades to the buildings. The Village has plans to submit a Downtown Revitalization Initiative Grant application with the hopes of securing one of the $10 million dollar awards that the Governor awards each year to one winner in each of the five regions around the State to further develop more of our Village.

From the infrastructure side of things there will be a reconstruction of South Main Street, a replacement of the culvert on West Union Street, a new gas main transmission line from Vienna Street across the southern portion of our Village and down Lincoln Road, along with work to be done on the East Avenue Bridge. And I am sure most of you have seen the projects that have begun around the various schools.

Suzie Earl asks me every Chamber of Commerce meeting what is new and I keep telling her lots, but I can’t tell you about them yet. Well it seems good to finally share what is going on around the Village. While there are still other projects I cannot disclose yet, I believe people can see that 2018 is going to be a year of progress.

With that progress we all need to remember support and patience. Our local businesses are going to need us more than ever. It may take a couple of extra minutes in the car to reach a business or a few extra steps to reach your destination, but we all need to take that extra time to support our local business owners. We all want places to shop, to eat and to play, but if we don’t support them, we won’t have them, so please take the extra time and shop locally.

Finally, I would ask that everyone be patient over the next 12-24 months. Though we may be inconvenienced and frustrated at times with the amount of construction going on around the Village, we as a community cannot prosper if we don’t have progress. There are many surrounding towns and villages that would love to have the problems we may encounter. If we all work together and support one another we will come out of these projects a much stronger community.