Good Financial Reads: So You Want to Learn About the Stock Market?

It isn’t even 2020 yet, and it seems like we are already in full swing for election season. On both sides of the aisle, there are doom and gloom proclamations if the other party wins the Presidential election. Republicans say the stock market will go into a downward spiral if someone like Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders were to win the election. Democrats say the stock market is already on the brink and will tank if Donald Trump is re-elected. And the media, especially the financial media, LOVES this. 

Like it or not, we’re within a year of the 2020 Presidential Election!

And with it comes the usual assortment of emotional predictions about where the country and stock market will be headed depending on who wins.

Since making emotional investment decisions is an almost sure-fired way of hurting long-term investment returns, we like to “ground” our emotions by looking at history.

If you have cash to invest, you might also have a lot of questions that you want to get clarity on before you make any money moves.

Investing can get complex, and fast — and not everyone has the time or desire to dig into the research or sift through the noise in order to find the signal they really need.

To help you get traction, we’re addressing 3 common questions around the market and investing that we’ve heard lately.

Here are the answers you may need to know:

I was on a finance committee meeting the other day with a non-profit board I sit on, when one of the other committee members looked at the investment portfolio and declared:  “Why are they invested 25% in international stocks?”  My retort was: “Is there a reason they shouldn’t be?”   His response was quite interesting: “Well, first, we’re a US organization!  And, second, international stocks have under-performed domestic stocks for the last 20 years!”