For those of you who were unaware, I recently spent 10 days in Jinja, Uganda, with my daughter, working in an orphanage. Getting there and back added another 4 days, so for 14 days I was “incommunicado.” I never picked up a paper, never turned on a TV (because there wasn’t one where we were), and internet service was sketchy at best.
So, I come back to work and flip on the computer and am bombarded by headlines warning that “Brexit” could rattle the world’s financial markets. What in the world is “Brexit” I thought to myself. Some new fast moving disease? Turns out it is what some financial writer coined to refer to the upcoming vote by Britain on exiting the European Union. Then there was a giant photo of Fed Chair Janet Yellen and how her upcoming testimony before Congress had the financial markets on pins and needles. Yet another headline was someone predicting oil prices to return to $80 a barrel and what that means for economic growth.
When was the last time you reacted to a financial headline and did something with your investments? How did it turn out? Most likely opposite of what you thought. 30 years ago when I was just starting out in this business, our information arrived each morning on our door step in the form of the Wall Street Journal. Business news that happened yesterday is what it was. We didn’t know what the stock market was doing on a minute by minute basis. We’d flip on the radio a couple of times during the day and catch the stock market report at the top of the hour.
Having been away from it for two weeks, I’ve come to the conclusion that all this financial news and information that we are bombarded with 24/7 is just a bunch of noise that sells advertising and provides more people jobs as anchors, reporters and so called “experts.” It distracts us from our long term plans and goals. Sure we need information about what we are investing in; what interest rates are doing (not what some “expert” thinks they will do). We need to know about the companies we invest in. Are they making money? Do they owe too much money? We need facts, not speculation.
The Brits are going to vote to either leave or stay in the European Union. In the long run it matters not to my financial plan. What Fed Chair Janet Yellen thinks about the economy, and where it will be in the coming months, matters not to my long term financial plan. Whether we are in a recession or an expansion, McDonald’s will still sell hamburgers and pay stockholders a dividend, Apple will still sell iPhones, oil at $80 a barrel will have no effect on my long term financial plan because oil at $30 a barrel had no effect on my long term plan, nor did oil at $100 a barrel.
Let’s turn off the noise and focus on the information we need to keep our long term plan moving forward.
Mike Berry is a Registered Representative offering securities through Cambridge Investment Research, Inc., a Broker/Dealer, Member FINRA/SIPC. Investment Advisor Representative, Cambridge Investment Research Advisors, Inc., a Registered Investment Advisor. Legacy Wealth Management, LLC and Cambridge are not affiliated. Cambridge does not offer tax advice.
Copyright ©2016 Mike Berry. All Rights reserved. Commercial copying, duplication or reproduction is prohibited.
