0:00 Who are you? And where are you going? What do you [Music] want? Hello and welcome to People Making Money. I'm your host, Kevin Bemmel, and we're here every Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time to talk about job hunting and building a business and building wealth, all the topics related to finances. So, uh the last um few weeks
0:39 um the the economy has been uh a lot more volatile than uh than it has been um of late. And uh pardon me one moment. I forgot to close my email. And uh and so um I've been talking to uh more pe the people I've been talking to more frequently are, you know, concerned about their investments. They don't know what to do. uh the and and so I thought I would spend a little bit of
1:14 time today and talk about what what we can do when we're faced with this this kind of market volatility, the kind of economic turbulence that we've been experiencing uh and and um uh you know kind of kind of figure it out. So uh I I have I have a few thoughts. This probably will be uh a shorter show than than normal, but but but that's okay. So, if you've been watching the stock market at all, and I typically I I read
1:50 the Wall Street Journal every day, and so I I generally speaking know what's happening with the the S&P 500, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and the NASDAQ. And they they were up and then they were down and they were up and they were down. They they were they had kind of a long string of ups um until uh yesterday and had basically recovered um much of the ground that they had lost yesterday. They were they were off um by I think 0.9% uh for the Dow and and the NASDAQ and
2:28 and I think the S&P 500 was down as I recall 6% actually here. You know what I can I can I can here I that's right I forgot I've got it right I've got the paper right here. Here we go. So uh okay S&P 500 declining8%. Yeah. And the Dow and the NASDAQ were down.9%. So you know most of the indexes were down close to 1 1%. Uh you know it it is a sector it it is uh stocks and bonds uh that are much more volatile in terms of their values
3:03 than for example something like real estate. So if you have a 401k or an IRA and it's it's invested primarily in stocks and bonds. So of course that's experiencing a lot more volatility uh than you know something like real estate which you know the the the the trend line is is is much longer. We're talking about months and months if if if not years. I I was also reading an article about office building or commercial
3:38 property values in Boston and you know despite uh the uh I should say commercial property assessed values in Boston that that's a that's a different than property values uh than than market values. So the assessed value despite the fact that office buildings uh across the country are still suffering from vacancy unless you're talking about uh new highly amenitized office buildings in New York something like that. Um but but broadly
4:14 the office market sector has is still suffering from high vacancy. Despite that, uh, assessed values continued to go up in Boston through last year. And now in the first quarter of this year, they dropped by over a billion dollars. So, you know, you look at a statistic like that and you say, "Oh, no. Real estate values are dropping, too." Well, you know, those property values have probably been been dropping all along, but the assessment process is is
4:51 a lagging indicator. And and so, you know, we have to be careful even how we look at real estate values. So, unless you're having a property appraised, you know, every month, you're unlikely to to know how its value is changing. number one. And number two, you know, a property can experience some rough times. Uh maybe it gets vandalized and so now some work has to be done and uh you know, and then that gets done and it's remarketed or repositioned the market. So you know,
5:26 the the the time it takes to do these kinds of things is very different. So as a result, how value is affected is different as well. So, I would be careful uh I would be careful about the the uh information you're using to assess what's really happening in the marketplace. And uh I I always I always look at, you know, the sleep factor. And if uh if if reading something is going to cause me
6:02 to not sleep well, um that's not to say I don't read it, but but I make sure that if I read it, I also read competing information to get a broader picture of what might be going on. So, as much as of course I want you to watch my shows, uh this is a complex subject and I would encourage you to to the extent that you're concerned about the topic or and or worse it's keeping you up at night, seek out more information from people whose opinions you trust. Okay? And and
6:39 that may not be your next door neighbor. Okay? Uh I I had a situation. A friend of mine uh came came to Los Angeles to visit a couple of weeks ago. He has some money he needs to invest. We've been talking about this for a while now. And because of the volatility in the market, he was reluctant to put it into stocks or bonds, those kind of financial investments. He like me, his background is is is real estate. And uh you know early on in the discussion about in in what he should invest I said well why
7:14 aren't you looking at some kind of real estate investment I mean you know that you can you can personally anal an analyze the quality of a real estate investment whereas uh you're not an expert in stocks and bonds and so you're reliant on other people's opinions number one and number two they're a much more volatile investment and that I think like me doesn't really, you know, fit your investing profile. So, those are the kinds of things I think we need to look at and assess as we make our way
7:50 through, you know, the times times the times as they are right now and and how for however long they're going to continue. So I have uh I have five thoughts on u on uh um investing with caution uh and and how you can uh you know as I said a moment ago navigate what's what's going on in the economy and the investment world. So uh first of all you may need to revisit your risk
8:25 tolerance. So the market has been largely going up almost without stopping uh since what 2010 or thereabouts. So, you know, if you're uh you know, 30 years old or younger or maybe even 35 years old and younger, um you may not have experienced any kind of significant uh uh correction in in the market. And
9:02 so this may or or not correction any kind of significant turbulence and uncertainty uh in in the market. Certainly the market collapsed as a result of of COVID for a short time but it pretty quickly recovered. Uh so so of course that went on but it was clear that that COVID was what was driving that. What's you know the uncertainty that's driving market volatility right now is is different. Um while there's you know the speculation speculation about what's going to happen with tariffs and international trade uh
9:37 what's happening with the geopolitical situation things like uh the restriction of shipping through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. Uh it was reported today that the United States and the Houthis have reached uh an agreement that they're not going to attack uh shipping that's going through the Suez Canal. But I read the article about it. It's very short on details. Uh who knows whether you know such an agreement is actually going to hold up. So so there's a lot of uncertainty there. China's economy uh they're they're issuing less and less
10:13 data and and China is the second largest economy in the world now. So the less we know about what's really going on in China, the the more difficult it is to gauge what's going to happen in the world economy overall. So it's these kinds of uncertainties that are causing the environment in in which we're living right now. So it it's not it's not a singular thing. A lot of people have focused on tariffs. Uh tariffs are certainly one issue of uncertainty, but there there are a
10:49 number of others and smart investors look across the economic stage uh in order to assess what's really going on. So uh I would say you know don't allow yourself to be blinded by one particular issue or one particular view. Keep your eyes open. keep your view as broad as you can so you can understand, you know, what's what's what's or so that you can analyze what's going on and and hopefully gain the best understanding.
11:24 So, number one in in that is revisit your risk tolerance. So, uh, oh, going back to what I was saying a moment ago, um, for the most part, um, markets have been on an upswing for, you know, most of the last 15 years. So, you know, risk tolerance to us kind of wasn't really uh an issue because there was a sense that yeah, things are just going to keep growing and growing and growing, right? And that that means that a risk tolerance in that
12:00 climate uh is different than risk tolerance when there's turbulence and uncertainty. So you know this is the sleep factor I was just mentioning a minute ago. If if you're finding yourself uh wanting to you know constantly look at what's going on, you're obsessing, you know, on it. So it may be that the uh things that you're invested in are actually more risky or more volatile than is compatible with your
12:35 actual risk tolerance. So this is a good time to think about that if you have a financial advisor to talk to your financial advisor about it. uh because like I said it it's it's very easy to have uh you know a sanguin attitude toward risk when there's not a lot of risk in investing or a lot I should say when there's not a lot of uh turbulence in investing but when when you have uncertainty and the concurrent unknowns that that that that uncertainty brings.
13:12 So now now you're facing a a different kind of risk and it you may assess, wow, you know what? I I guess I'm not as risk tolerant as as I thought. You know, on the other hand, if if you're, you know, kind of digging what's going on right now, um you you like the the ups and downs, uh maybe you have a higher risk tolerance than you thought. You like the roller coaster ride. Uh I I I had a business associate like that uh years ago when I had my uh real estate company back in the 80s and 90s through through
13:47 the mid 2000s. He just he loved risky investments. He was he was always investing in commodities and futures all that kind of stuff. I was like I don't have a risk tolerance for that. That's that's too that's just too high a risk for me. And uh and so I I I I never invested in those kind of things. So, so revisit your risk tolerance. Think about it. U assess your well-being beyond your financial well-being. How how is what's currently going on in the economy and with investments impacting your ability to sleep, your your relationships, your
14:23 performance at in in your work or in school and and and that will give you some sense of where your real risk tolerance lies. That's number one. Number two, you may want to keep some cash on the sidelines. Okay? So, let's say that you have an investment that's maturing or or maybe has recently matured, right? And now you've you've got the cash sitting there. Okay? And uh it may be a better decision that for now just hold
14:58 on to the cash, you know, or put it in a money market which is a a fairly risk-free uh investment and and and a and a a essentially nonvolatile investment. And you know, don't push yourself to put it into something else. Don't push yourself to put it into stocks or bonds or uh crypto or what whatever it is you might normally invest in. Leave some cash on the side. Now, do you want to liquidate all your investments and and have all that, you know, cash not performing? That may be
15:33 too extreme. Um you could you could miss out on on opportunities, you know, for if if people uh three weeks ago cashed out. uh they they cashed out kind of at the B or maybe two weeks ago actually. Uh they cashed out at the bottom and of course the market came back up. They they you know they locked in a loss and missed out on the gain. So, uh, you you may decide that you're going to take some particularly I don't risky investments um that may that make up a, you know, just a percentage of your of your portfolio or of your overall
16:08 investment value and you're going to liquidate those. or like I said, maybe you have something that's maybe you had a, you know, some savings bonds that matured or maybe you were invested in a loan and the loan paid off like a private a private loan, it paid off. Uh those kind of things and and so maybe sit on that uh cash. Don't turn around and then reinvest it immediately. Okay? And that way you can you can kind of see how things are are get a sense of how things are actually going to play out. Now, what I would caution you not to do
16:45 is is play the game of trying to wait, you know, till it hits bottom. Um, you know, and and and to, you know, to buy back in. So, if you've got cash sitting on the sidelines, um, you know, the game of trying to precisely time the market is very, very difficult. Even very experienced investors uh oftentimes don't make the right call as to when to reinvest in the market. Uh sometimes they do. Okay. I if you've ever heard of a fellow by the name of Dick Zimman, he's a real estate investor here in Los Angeles. I I I knew Dick as an
17:23 acquaintance and uh Dick was able to anticipate um the the the the the last before this one downturn in uh office uh in in in office building values. He sold out beforehand uh in the uh kind of mid 2000s. uh sold out kind of at the top of the market and then when the recession of 2007208 hit the value of these buildings
17:58 dropped tremendously and he started buying back in at at pretty much the bottom of the market and and did extremely well. Now, it it's a little bit easier to do that in real estate uh because the markets don't drop and rise as quickly as they do in the stock market. And which isn't to say that Dick was not brilliant. I think he was. I I would love to have, you know, this much of his brilliance. Uh but, uh it is it is timing the markets is easier to do in in real
18:34 estate. Now I will use an example though that shows real estate isn't necessarily uh you know timeable if you will. So uh when when COVID hit in 2000 I talked to a number of of people I knew friends who were in the real estate business and we and and pretty much across the board they were expecting a big drop in real estate values uh didn't never really materialized and in fact some sectors increased. So the value of uh uh industrial property generally went up because all of a sudden e-commerce
19:10 became much more popular and so distributors and sellers needed much more warehouse and distribution space. Uh apartment buildings uh values went up as people uh started um moving into their own apartment to get away from living with other people because they were afraid of getting sick or whatever. So, apartment building, so rents went up and apartment building values went up. Home values went up as I as you're probably aware, right? Um, and the collapse in office building values didn't happen in the short term. It took longer for that to develop that and and
19:47 you know, part of that was due to owners hanging tight. They they weren't selling. So even though perhaps their buildings were were d the value of their buildings were dropping because they were losing tenants um they weren't selling them. So those losses weren't actually or those reductions in value weren't actually showing up in the marketplace. So, you know, someone who sold out buildings um in, you know, 2020 2021, you know, they're they they probably haven't been able to buy back in uh you know, at at at significantly
20:24 lower prices. Uh some, you know, office building prices have finally started to to show up. Drops in values have finally started to show up. Um, and so you see funds like uh uh Brookstone and and um um and I can't think of the other one, but they're they're you know raising billions of dollars to buy, you know, distressed properties, but but it hasn't been the kind of widespread carnage um that was experienced in in the uh sort of mid to late 2000s and and other times in my real estate career. So you want,
21:00 you know, think about keeping some cash on the side, but uh, you know, trying to time the market, especially stock market, probably not a fruitful strategy. Better to dollar cost average where you invest on a periodic basis in whatever uh you're you're investing in. So, you know, if if if if you're investing in mutual funds or ETFs, so rather than dropping $1,000, uh, you know, in in say January and and not investing anymore until the
21:35 following January, you're probably better off investing $80 or $83 a month, January, Mar January, February, March, April, etc. because that dollar cost averages your buy in and that creates a more stable picture in terms of how how those those that particular uh investment will perform. So the the the routine investing is is almost always a better way to go than trying to time the market. Okay. Number three, uh diversify
22:13 wisely. If if if you haven't heard you need to diversify your investments, uh that that's unfortunate to say the least. Um a diversified uh investment portfolio is always better because when some uh se investment sectors drop, others tend to go up even within stocks. So when there's a recession, typically uh um things like stocks in in things like foods and and other types of essentials tend to perform well, whereas stocks in non-essentials
22:50 uh like um luxury goods certainly uh you know cars uh especially luxury cars um they don't perform as well. So you know things like uh you know paper towels and household supplies like I said food um health care those talk those you know those spending in those sectors holds up even when the you know economic times are not particularly strong because people have to eat. They still buy paper towels. They still buy you know toilet paper and Kleenex or or facial tissues.
23:26 They still need they still get sick. So they still have to go to the doctor. they have to go to the hospital, whatever. Those things don't change um with with economic ups and downs. Um as opposed to, you know, luxury goods like high-end cars, jewelry, expensive clothing. So one of the things the luxury sector has been experiencing over the last couple of years is the sort of middle income middle class uh people who who got a lot of uh money from the
24:03 government during COVID. They were buying luxury goods with that money and now that money has been exhausted. Um people's budgets are tighter because of inflation over the last several years. And so luxury uh retailers have that that that segment of of of their buyers has has dropped out. So look, very wealthy buyers, you know, economic fluctuations don't have a whole lot of impact on on their buying habits. They buy when they want to buy, not because they always have money. But for most of us who are
24:39 not in that category, right, when we wanna when when we feel economically strong and we want to buy ourselves something particularly nice, so we will. Um but when we're feeling uncertain about the economy or there's volatility, we're probably less likely to make those kind of purchases. So when you look at diversification, you want to look uh you want to diversify across sectors, across regions, AC across asset classes. So now you you know I mentioned real estate a little while ago and you may be thinking
25:14 I you know I don't want to be I don't want to own you know an apartment building. It's a it's a big headache managing it. I agree especially in a state like California. Uh I I would never own residential income property here in California. The the regulations keep getting more and more burdensome. Insurance keeps going up. It's it's a very very difficult sector to navigate here. However, uh you know, you can buy uh shares in real estate investment trusts. You can invest as a limited partner or an LLC member in in a real
25:50 estate venture. Typically, it's it you don't need as big an investment to uh to be involved with real estate as as a REIT or as a partner um because you're joining together with other people uh in order to be a part owner of real estate. So, that can be a good way of uh of of diversifying uh what what you do. Okay. uh diversifying I'm sorry across asset classes uh you don't necessarily have to
26:25 become a direct owner of real estate and and that gets back kind of also to revisit your risk tolerance. So uh you know owning directly owning a piece of real estate um perhaps apart from your house you may just not have the risk tolerance for it. You may also not have the annoyance tolerance for it, right? tenants calling you up complaining or you know the a pipe broke these kind you know that's not a risk tolerance factor it's that's more of a do I do you have the bandwidth to be dealing with those issues as well as to be dealing with
27:00 with your work and your family your other relationships you know do you travel frequently uh you know so it may you owning real estate directly may not be compatible with the other aspects of your life and so you know then then then don't would find another perhaps consider another way to be invested in real estate that is compatible with your risk tolerance and how the other facets of your life work. Okay. All right. So, diversify wisely. That's another thing to to look at. Number four, avoid emotional decisions. So, uh, you know,
27:37 if you're watching the market, you know, every day as as it ticks up, you're watching the Dow throughout the day, okay, I it it's it's, you know, you're unless you really love being on that roller coaster, you're really setting yourself up and you're putting yourself in an emotionally vulnerable position where you just may not be able to take it anymore. and and so you you end up take you end up making a decision based on the emotion of the volatility rather than on what is best for for your
28:14 overall investing uh investment portfolio. So uh I I know for myself I I have a small 401k uh I I check it maybe once a month. I mean it's not you know whether it goes up or down. I mean, it's a 401k. I'm not going to access the money until I retire anyway. So, you know, there's no point in in in tracking it on a daily basis. So, um there's no reason to do that. Uh and and in general, you know, the investments I have, they're meant to be
28:51 long-term investments anyway. So, where they're at today is irrelevant because I'm not going to be selling them today. So there's no reason for me to be watching them on a daily basis. And unless you're living off your investments, you're probably in a similar situation to me. So you you know if you're investing in order to augment your income and maybe uh you know retire completely if that's a goal for you. I know for me it's not but uh you know when I get a little bit older than I am
29:26 now perhaps I'll be able to maybe slow down a little bit right but I plan to keep on working because I feel I want to feel useful. I think I think it's healthy to be engaged in in productive activity. Uh but but having said that, you know, it'll it would be nice to have, you know, some investments to fall back on. So, you know, I'm not having to every day be, you know, concentrated on making sure, you know, I can make ends meet and all that kind of stuff. So, uh um tracking your constantly tracking your investments is and putting yourself
30:03 on an emotional roller coaster really encourages making making bad decisions because they're being made by emotion, not by uh what you're seeing in the market and what appears to be taking, you know, prudent steps because of, you know, the the likelihood of the performance of a particular investment. So this also has to do with your risk tolerance. That's why I mentioned that first. So if you are just very very nervous about investments and and and and how their value changes. So then you
30:39 you probably it may be not probably but it may be a good idea not to put yourself in in investments that have a high high volatility over a short period of time. uh get into things that are more stable. Um and then you don't have to worry about checking them multiple times a day, you can you can just let them them work. So um you know, and the other thing is you may be invested in something and and because times are volatile and you're watching and then all of a sudden you see some investment and and you know it's maybe it's a stock
31:15 and its value just drops and you're like, "Oh no, what am I gonna do?" Right? Make sure you find out why did it drop. Okay? Something could have happened. Um, you know, it it it reported uh, you know, poor quarterly earnings or something and because of all the other volatility, a bunch of people sold it, but they the market was oversold. And so, if if you're if you just hang on until the next day or a couple of days, it it ticks back up again. So just because the value of a particular
31:51 investment plunges, that doesn't mean it's going to stay down. People panic, okay, and and they sell when they probably shouldn't, right? And that can cause a larger decline than is warranted by the fundamentals of that particular investment. So before you make any decision, really think it through uh and and as best you can understand why is the investment performing the way it's investing uh and and and is this really
32:28 the right time to sell? Likewise, if you're thinking about buying something, is this the right time to buy? So, if you've got some cash sitting on on the sidelines and you're kind of itchy because you want it in the market, uh you know, if you're considering a particular investment, is this the right time to buy it? you know, um if you're if you're considering an investment um that that is highly vulnerable to tariffs, so that may this may not be quite the
33:04 right time to be making that investment. The maybe a little more fog needs to clear before you would actually put your money in that. Okay. Um, you know, there there's still a lot of talk going on and we don't know what's going to be happening. And so, uh, you know, again, if you've got it in a money market and maybe you're making two, three, four%, something like that, maybe that's okay right now. And rather than making an emotional decision or getting someone hyping you up on on buying a particular investment, oh, this is going to be great. It's perfect in a volatile
33:40 market. I mean, maybe it is, but really look at why they're saying that. You know, question them. Why is this such a great investment despite the volatility in the market? Does it make sense to you? And and here's here's really the bottom line. Investing is largely common sense, okay? It's about things like supply and demand. It's about things like when people have money, they buy. When they don't have money, they don't. Right? We can largely understand why investments work the way that they work. Okay? It
34:17 yes, there's all kinds of fancy and an analytical techniques and all of that discounted cash flow and internal rates of return and I can throw out lots of fancy terminology for real estate. But the bottom line in investing in real estate is if it's rental property, do people want to rent this kind of property? If it's office building these days, the answer is largely no. If it's if it's uh apartment buildings in many areas of the country, the answer is yes. Uh but in the uh southwest, um apartment markets are overbuilt. So there's more
34:54 apartments available for rent than there are people who want to rent them. Hence, rents are dropping. And if rents are dropping, what would you imagine is happening with values? They're dropping as well, right? Very common sense. So really engage your common sense as you look at uh making investment decisions rather than letting yourself get overwhelmed by the emotion of the decision. Okay, so that's number four. Number five, focus on quality. Okay, focus on quality. So, I mentioned this uh this this friend of mine who had some
35:31 money he wanted to invest and like I said he was thinking about some kind of stock thing or or some kind of mutual fund or whatever. And I introduced him to a friend of mine uh who he and his partner have been putting together real private real estate investments for gosh I think it's 15 years now. 15 maybe close to 20 years now. Uh, and they've done very well. Have they, you know, lit the world on fire the way Dig Simon did? No. But most people don't. Most people
36:06 don't. What they've done is year after year, they've delivered solid results for their investors, right? They do quality real estate investments. They deeply research the markets in which they consider investing. they they look at the data, they get to know the players um and and they and in most of the markets in which they invest, they have a lot of experience. Now, that's what marks a quality investment. Now, they also happen to be very honest and they're they're very
36:41 open about make you know disclosing the pros and the cons of investment. they keep their investors uh informed about uh how the investments are performing all those kinds of things. So that's what marks on the real estate side of things at least a quality investment. It's quality investments are not just the quality of the investment itself like the quality of a building in a real estate investment. It's the quality of the people, how they handle their their business, how they handle uh working
37:16 with their investors. All of that matters, right? And uh you know this is this is one of I think the key stones to know if you're dealing with with quality investments and that is if you're getting pressed to make a decision by someone that you don't already have a wellestablished rel with whom you don't already have a wellestablished wellestablished relationship. Sorry I'm getting my my I'm getting a little tongue tied here. then that may be a sign that you're not
37:54 dealing with a quality investment. Okay? Uh if you've been working with someone for years and years and years and they call you up and they say, "Hey, I've got something here. I think it's it's really fantastic. Uh you know, um there's a short window in which to get involved." There are cases like that where legitimately there's a short window to get involved. um the the promoter of the investment have may have set it up that way on purpose because they want to create kind of some uh you know some hype to get it closed as quickly as possible. Um but presuming presume if
38:31 you know the source well you have a lot of confidence in the source. So then you know being told this requires a quick decision could can very well be legitimate. By the way, uh there have been times in my real estate career when I've told people, look, this requires a quick decision. So, I'm not going to press you to make a decision, but just just so you know, um you know, the investment is probably going to be available until, you know, the end of this month or or whatever. And and if you decide you want in, you you know,
39:07 you probably want to make a decision by then. Otherwise, you may risk not having the opportunity to invest. I tend not to say the words miss out. I that that's too salesy for me. But um uh there's no there's never uh I mean the sort of hard sell I I find that to be h why am I why am I being pre if it's so great so self-evidently great why do they really need to pressure me? That's kind of how I look at it. So focus on quality, quality investments, quality
39:43 people, investments with stable earnings, um strong balance sheets, uh consistent dividends or consistent payouts. Uh look at all of those together and again do not miss or absolutely look at the people involved as well. Okay. So, the people are part of determining the quality of a particular investment, especially if it's something like real estate or some sort of non stock market or bond market investment. The quality of the people
40:18 involved really makes a difference. Okay, so those are the things to do. I'm going to mention just a few things uh not to do, okay, because those can be equally important. So during volatile markets, first of all, don't panic sell. Okay? Uh just as I mentioned earlier, just because let's say a stock takes a steep drop in in in price, that doesn't mean you you need to sell it doesn't mean the company's going out of business. I mean, it might, okay,
40:55 the company may have announced bankruptcy on that day and you see a big drop in the stock, but is it is it a liquidation bankruptcy? Is it or is it a chapter 11 which is a reorganization? What are the prospects? I would, you know, minimally if if I found out I was invested in a stock and the company announced that it was going bankrupt, the first thing I would do would be to look into what is the nature of the bankruptcy because some companies will go into bankruptcy in order to reorganize, get rid of unprofitable locations, be able to cancel leases on space that they no longer need. and
41:31 they're actually going to come out of a chapter 11 stronger than when they went in. So to sell at that time may not make any sense even though the stock drops in value on the announcement of the bankruptcy. So don't panic sell. Um sometimes maybe you know in some cases maybe in in more than some cases locking in losses can be worse than just weathering the storm. So, understand what's going on with an investment that's lost a lot of value before making a decision. Uh, number two, and I've
42:06 talked about this already, don't try to time the market. Okay? It it it's largely a fool's game. That's why I talked about um dollar cost averaging. That's a much better way uh to to make sure that um that overall you're building a sound portfolio of investments. But but again, timing the markets almost for sure, you're you're not going to do it well. Okay. Next, don't follow trends blindly. So, uh for example, meme stocks, you know, they can
42:41 be fun and maybe you're kind of into that and that that's fine, but I wouldn't build a portfolio on on meme stocks or attempt to build a portfolio on meme stocks. Maybe you you allocate 5% or even 10% of your of your investment dollars to playing in meme stocks because it's fun, you enjoy it, you interact with your friends, whatever that is. Okay. But but in terms of, you know, trends like crypto was a big trend for a while. Now, now it's more of a it's becoming more of just a a standard
43:17 asset class. Uh I I know um um I I had a friend I have he's still a friend. Uh he got really excited about some uh uh crypto uh currencies uh a while back and he's like, "Oh, you got to buy this." No, it's like the latest it's going to be the next Bitcoin, you know. No, probably not. Probably not. It takes a You know, Bitcoin is a phenomenon. Um it was it was an early uh you know one of the earliest uh cryptocurrencies. You know if somebody's
43:54 telling me that a certain cryptocurrency is going to be the next Bitcoin, no probably not. Okay. So so again um if if the herd is going one way, oftentimes the smart money is betting against the herd, right? So, uh, you know, don't blindly follow trends. Really look into them. Is this really a good investment to make this this meme stock or this cryptocurrency or, you know, whatever it is that that everybody seems to be jumping on the bandwagon and investing in it. Okay? And finally, don't put your
44:30 money in one hot sector. Okay? That's why I talked about diversification. diversify wisely and and focus on quality. So quality is important but you still have to diversify as well. So you can have quality in in a single sector and for whatever like like luxury goods, right? If you know luxury goods have done very very well up until just recently. Um and so uh if you were invested solely in luxury good stocks, you probably did pretty well. But all of a sudden now, you know, they've turned.
45:07 And so to be invested in only one sector, even a hot sector, means that you're essentially forced to try and time the market. And that's, as I've already mentioned several times, almost impossible. So, uh, you know, if if if you think that a particular sector is hot, you may allocate some additional funds to it. But I but don't I wouldn't put all of my funds in you know one sector. Stay diversified. That's the best thing for the long term. Okay. So
45:42 look uh you know some some some final thoughts. Uh you know generally speaking during volatile times the best thing is to stay the course. If you have a well diversified high quality group of investments, while they may fluctuate day by day or or week by week or whatever, it's nothing for you to worry about. Um, you know, that that's just that's just part of of the volatile times we're in. Uh, but but you're probably best off uh staying the course.
46:19 Um, you know, you like I said, you you I would recommend you kind of go through this list and say, you know, do I need to reassess my risk tolerance? Um, am I sufficiently diversified? You know, ask yourself kind of these five uh questions and and and see if there's any deficiencies on those bases uh rather than uh you know something emotional. So, um, the main and and and I'm going to I'm going to close with this, and that is if you don't have an investment plan, now is the time. Well, the best
46:56 time to have an investment plan was, you know, when you started investing, but if you don't have one still, now is the time to put one together. Having an investment plan helps us respond properly when times are volatile, right? Because it's something that we've put together. we've thought it through. We've we've worked it for a while and we and and we've been able to hopefully work out some of the kinks. That's what we want to do. And we want to have that plan uh available to us when the the the
47:31 you know, it gets more it gets tougher to, you know, to be making decisions. So, you know, again, if you don't have an investment plan, this now is the time to develop it. and and and I would focus on that rather than doing things like trying to time the market and and all the, you know, frankly ill-advised uh situations that people get themselves into. Okay. So, uh if you have any uh questions, comments, criticisms, thoughts, uh all the links to my u social media will be in the show notes
48:07 after this episode posts on YouTube. I I welcome them. If you have something of a private nature, uh you my email address will be there as well. Um I do not give individual investment advice. This was all just meant to be educational. Uh so, you know, if you want a referral to an investment advisor or a wealth advisor, that I'm happy to to help you with. Um but I I'm I'm not going to be advising you on on your individual uh situations. So, uh let's see. Okay. for tomorrow. Thursday at 5:00 p p.m.
48:43 Pacific time is my every other week show, Jiggers's Place. We're going to sit back, have some grog, the Navy cocktail, I guess we could call it. We're going to talk about duty. What What is duty? Why should we be concerned about what is our duty and to whom do we have a duty? To ourselves, our family, our friends, our community, our country, the world. uh you know o to God. Um these are the questions that we're going to talk about over uh o over some grog. So I hope you'll join me again tomorrow,
49:18 Thursday at 5:00 p. p.m. Pacific time. And then next week on Monday at uh 10:00 a.m. Pacific time is my show Trust and Estates Weekly. My guest is Andrew Nutbr. Andrew is going to be talking about crossborder estate issues. Uh I I think that uh you will find this particularly interesting. I haven't addressed this issue on my shows uh I I think I think ever um but but certainly not in the depth that Andrew to which
49:54 Andrew was going to go. So so please join us for that. On Tuesday at 10 a.m. is my show business lessons from the military. And then we'll be back one week from today with the next edition of People Making Money. So, thanks again for watching my live viewers especially and wishing you all a wonderful rest of the day and signing off as I always do. Marie darling, you are my bell. Courage at all times.