I’m still at home, working off-site virtually.
This is the temporary new normal. How long It will last is anyone’s guess. This is not the time for the faint-hearted. It’s a time to focus ahead of us, not focusing behind us. It’s time to chillout when quarterly financial statements arrive and fight the knee-jerk reaction of “pull me out”.
The currently ‘stay at home notice’ hasn’t stopped us from serving you. All hands are on deck. In fact, each day we have multiple meetings with clients without them leaving their homes. We have worked virtually with many of our clients over the years, all over the country; some who we haven’t even met face-to-face. They’ve found us through the referrals due to the good work that we’ve done for others. So, we’re not new to video conferencing and desktop sharing. We’re kind ‘of experts at this. We’ve been to this rodeo before and we can make it easy and simple for you to connect with us.
So, how can we help right now with “pull me out” knee-jerk reactions. Maybe some perspective would be useful, by using these facts from the S&P 500 Stock Index. (Source: E*TRADE Advisory Services)
Had you sold out at the bottom of the Great Depression; you would have lost 78 percent of your money. If you did nothing, you recovered it in 52 months.
Had you sold out at the bottom of World War Two; you would have lost 29 percent of your money. If you did nothing, you would have recovered it in 9 months.
Had you sold out at the bottom of the oil crisis in the early 70’s; you would have lost 43 percent of your money. If you did nothing, you would have recovered it in 21 months.
Had you sold out at the bottom of the 1987 crash; you would have lost 29 percent. If you did nothing, you would have recovered it in 13 months.
Had you sold out at the bottom of the Gulf War Crisis in the early 90’s; you would have lost 13 percent of your money. If you had done nothing you would have recovered it in 3 months; and
Had you sold out at the bottom of the Great Recession about a decade ago, you would have lost 46 percent of your money. If you had done nothing you would have recovered it in 24 months.
Every single time something like this happens, we say ‘but, this is different’. Each time is was different and yes, this is also very different. Yet, past experience teaches us that there has always been a beginning, a middle and an end. We are still somewhere in the middle and it still hurts.
Know that we’re looking out for your best interests. We want you to have success, not failure. During these past weeks, we have worked harder and longer hours to provide assurance to you. Our job is to deal with this. Your job is to take care of your family, your job or business as best you can and we will continue to do the very best that we can.
Thank you and be well.
