Jill On Money: Timing the market STILL does not work

It has been declared that history does not repeat itself but it rhymes What lessons from history can we learn when it comes to extreme volatility of constituents procedures and arena movements One obvious takeaway from the past three months is that unpredictable things can happen at any time and can upend your plans both personal and financial Related Articles Tariffs could cost the average American household per year Here s how to save for it Jill On Money Bond domain forces Trump to blink Here s what happens if you don t file your taxes A fifth of Americans are on Medicaid Particular of them have no idea Plenty of Bay Area taxpayers might get a refund from Uncle Sam You only have to go back five years to the once in a century pandemic to understand that this is the occurrence But we human beings have brains that do not like to dwell on the challenging times which is admirable in specific cases and dangerous in others In fact certain of the the greater part key lessons that we learn often occur from the near-misses and the actual bad things that happen to us I m not suggesting that you live in a state of heightened anxiety worrying that the next scary event is around the corner but it is critical to at least consider what might go wrong That s tough to do especially when there s a chorus of the good times are here don t let them pass you by Consider that after the presidential poll corporate executives and Wall Street strategists were almost to a person euphoric One sent me this text fewer regulations extension of tax cuts ONLY UPSIDE That consensus helped push up stock prices with the S P peaking at on Feb Minimal could imagine what might upend the positive narrative but maybe that was not even necessary Perhaps the best that any of us can do is to mind the guardrails that can keep us out of trouble Whether the business sector is growing or in a recession or markets are rising or falling it makes sense to keep any money that you know you have to spend within - years out of risky assets And even if your outsized position in a stock or fund might trigger a tax event rebalancing can help keep your allocation aligned with your hazard tolerance The funny thing about vulnerability is that it s easy to gloss over when things are going well When the mood changes and markets drop your frayed nerves can t stand one more minute of pain Since the newest downturn I have been required repeatedly about what to do and whether to sell out and go to cash Notably I did not receive these kinds of questions when stocks were rising only AFTER they tanked Which brings me to another major lesson from turbulent times region timing still does not work Timing the sphere can be alluring Who would not want to be the person or hire the financial professional who knows the exact moment when to get in and out of an funding But timing the area does not work because it requires two perfect decisions when to get out and when to get back in According to research by Charles Schwab the cost of waiting for the perfect moment to invest typically exceeds the benefit of even perfect timing the best strategy for majority of us is not to try to market-time at all Here s the thing Nobody knows what is going to happen in the short term What we do know is that over the longer term decades not months those who can persevere and stick to their match plans are usually rewarded That s why it s critical to make sure that you can live with your expenditure portfolio in good and bad times because there will constantly be uncomfortable days months and even years ahead The key is not timing the territory but time in the sector Related Articles Berkeley apartments flop into loan default as East Bay woes widen Home sales drag across U S while Bay Area is nation s hottest sphere Cupertino housing project is part of a growing trend as expensive Bay Area cities want teachers to live near their schools Two lawyers charged in million workers comp scheme targeting California Spanish speakers Is Gavin Newsom changing his tune with the oil industry Jill Schlesinger CFP is a CBS News business analyst A former options trader and CIO of an resources advisory firm she welcomes comments and questions at askjill jillonmoney com Check her website at www jillonmoney com