WHAT DEFINES US?

WRITTEN BY: JEFF HAHN

“Stay The Course.”  I’ve grown to dislike this overused trite.  It belittles the anxiety we feel during moments of great stress.  Moreover, it fails to remind us of how we got here and provides no insight on how to face the unknown in front of us.

Most of us got here after spending many hours together discussing the intimate details of your lives and finances. Realize it or not, we were planning for exactly the situation we find ourselves in. We just didn’t have a name for it at the time.

We explained our belief that innovation and markets triumph over economic volatility. We chose to own most publicly traded companies in nearly every market around the world to give ourselves the best odds for success. We even joked, “when every market around the world stops working, none of what we’re discussing will matter anyway.” We fought the urge to follow the next sure thing and discussed all this long before a single dollar was invested.

Now is not the time to long for the portfolio you wish you had before all this started. It’s a time to remind ourselves of the work that’s been put in to get us here, financial and otherwise.

It’s ok to be frustrated and concerned. We are.

It's ok to admit you don’t know what’s next and it will likely get worse before better. We think so.

It’s ok to struggle with the desire to do something. We do.

However, we believe a lifetime of investing will be defined by the decisions made during brief moments of violent uncertainty, at the exact moment when everything we seem to know about investing is brought into question. We don’t believe we are defined only by moments of jubilation. Life itself doesn’t work that way. Investing is no different.

So here we find ourselves. Economies on pause but markets still open. Unknown financial and health challenges in front of us which we will face together. How will this define us?

We’re here in the office.  Ready to listen -- to your frustration, your concern, and your predictions.  Eventually, the reward will come when we listen to your triumphs.