Don’t Just Do Something, Stand There!

Last week Kaimey and the kids were out of town so I was living the life of a bachelor all week. Which really means getting caught up on the long to-do list around the house, plus taking care of all the things Kaimey typically does. Pretty glamorous. 

One of those things is checking the mail. It’s never been on my list in the division of household responsibilities. It just shows up I guess, all the bills to me and lots of boxes to Kaimey. On Thursday, I ended up going to the mailbox three times to see if the mail had come. I was expecting something important and wanted to grab it as soon as possible.

But each time I went, nothing was there. By the third trip, I was wondering if our mail had been delivered to the wrong house, which happens more often than you’d think. Should I ask if neighbors had gotten their mail yet? What if it was lost?

This is making me sound more uptight than I actually am, but I did think it was weird. When I decided I was likely making a big deal out of nothing, it reminded me of a conversation that I have often with clients.

They look at the stock market and the scary headlines out there and then ask me “What should we do?” I’ve heard this question enough from clients that I know what they are really asking. The financial media is telling them to do something. Their coworkers are telling them to do something. And they feel like if they shrug it off, they are being ignorant with their financial future. Shouldn’t they do something?

As frustrating as it can be, my answer is always to ask them a question: “What’s changed?” This usually throws people off guard. What do you mean what’s changed? The market is going crazy, other countries hate us, the sky is falling.

What I mean is, I’ve created a long term plan with that client to help them reach their life goals. And we built their investment portfolio to support those goals. If there are short term goals (in the next few years), we didn’t put that money in the stock market anyway. For the long term goals we already anticipated scary days in the stock market and planned accordingly. Although the headlines can invoke fear, we’ve already dealt with it in the plan.

So the question is “What’s changed in your life that would make us revisit the plan we made?” The plan shouldn’t change based on how we feel after a bad day/week/month in the market. We should be talking about updating your plan if the factors in your life have changed. Maybe you changed jobs, moved houses, are expecting another baby, moving a parent in with you, etc. This is what should lead you to reevaluate your planning.

In my situation, we just didn’t get mail on Thursday. And it was fine. Because on Friday we did get mail and everything arrived as it should. That’s just how it goes sometimes. 

If you’ve created a long term plan for your future, trust it! Don’t start reacting and making changes just because one weird thing happens or everyone else tells you to. Sometimes the best action is no action. Ride through the storm and trust the planning you’ve done.

If you’ve never made a long-term plan to help you reach your financial goals, I’d love to help you with that!