It's been an unprecedented year in many ways, so what has 2020 taught us in terms of investing?
"I would say there's three things people can really learn from this year," said Kelli Tampio, financial advisor with Edward Jones. "The first thing is that the markets and the current state of the economy don't always reflect one another. The economy tends to be looking at today, while the stock market tends to look at tomorrow. The market tends to have its ups and downs like we recently saw with the pandemic. The market went down very quick but recovered very quick; we're still on kind of a loose footing, but we definitely have a lot of positivity looking forward and looking at where the market is today gives us a good direction of what can happen in 2021."
Even in the worst of times, she says, there will always be opportunities for investors.
"We've had a big shift in the way we do things this year," Tampio said. "A lot of people are working from home, many are changing the way they buy things, so as you can imagine, with all those changes, it's not surprising some areas of the tech sector have done well. There's always going to be opportunities in the market, so it's important to stay focused on your long-term strategy and not overreact to certain events in the market."
Another lesson - that a little patience can go a long way.
"This past year has really showed people that patience and discipline is key," Tampio said. "A lot of times during these types of crises, people have a knee-jerk reaction and get really nervous. So hypothetically, if someone was an investor in March and got nervous, they may have sold out on their investments and they would have missed out on a huge opportunity. It's important for people to focus on their strategy and make sure they're comfortable with how their money is positioned and in line with their current goals and risks."
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