The stock market is down heavily in the last few days and has now entered the fifth bear market of my investing career. Bonds are having one of their worst years ever. Cryptocurrencies are down 60-70% or more. Rising interest rates are having serious impacts on real estate returns. And that's all in nominal dollars. Add on the effects of inflation and it feels like you're losing a big chunk of what you have worked so hard for. If you're starting to lose sleep, here is some friendly advice:
1) This too shall pass. It's temporary and the sun will come out again. It might be in a month. It might be in a year. It might be in 5 years. But it's temporary. It's not “different this time.”
2) Continue to stuff money down the rat hole as per your long term investing plan, no more, no less. The long term rate of return you get on the dollars you are investing now will be far higher than the money you invest at the peak of a bull market.
3) Turn off the news, stop reading your statements etc if you need to in order to stay the course with your investing plan.
4) If you have a taxable account, tax loss harvest to make lemonade from lemons.
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