Is tomorrow the most important election ever?
One columnist has this to say:
Depending on whom you believe, this year’s presidential election is the “most important” vote:
a) in our lifetime.
b) in a century.
c) in the history of the universe.
d) since the presidential race of 2000, which was the “most important election” since 1996, which stole the “most important” crown from 1992, and so on.1
Here is an important point: this was written a few decades ago on August 2nd, 2004.
Some things don’t change.
I don’t know if this is the most important election in my lifetime, but what I do know is that it is important now. It is what is in front of us; America’s decision is consequential for us and the world.
Nor do I know how the market will react in the next few days. I would expect volatility, but that’s not a prediction.
What I do know is that my job as a financial advisor is to do my best to manage money for our clients, no matter who is elected tomorrow or if the results take weeks to settle. Our job is to serve clients who will be thrilled with Vice President Harris and terrified of former President Trump.
And vice versa.
And everywhere in between.
We help people make investment decisions and try to keep them from making bad ones no matter who wins, whether we (or they) like the election results or not.
I also know that the news media, social media feeds, and chatrooms will be lighting up like crazy with potential stock market, bond market, and economic impacts due to whoever is elected. Emotions will be high, rhetoric will be intense, and the algorithm on your favorite device will be appealing to your political appetite and your investment fears enticing you to keep clickety click clicking.
Remember that investors have different needs, distinctive time horizons, and diverse risk tolerances. Therefore, there is not a one-size-fits-all investment solution, regardless of what clickbait headlines might say.
Furthermore, volatility itself can be one person’s in-the-nick-of-time opportunity and another person’s nausea. It is also the subscription price for investing.
We are surrounded by noise in our culture. This has only increased since the above 2004 article. At the time Facebook was still called TheFacebook and the iPhone hadn’t even been invented, and yet many elections still somehow wound up being THE MOST IMPORTANT one. Living wisely—let alone investing wisely—in a world intoxicated with superlatives and surprises (from the meaningless to the malevolent inside the infinite scroll) is not easy.
Whether this is the most important election in the history of our lifetime, the century, or the universe, we will have to wait and see. What we at Johnson Wealth Management won’t wait and see on is doing our best to help our clients make prudent decisions that will influence their financial future far past this election.
If you or someone you know needs assistance making investment decisions in and out of significant election seasons, consider us.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that financial planning is truly important.
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Sources:
1 Roy Rivenburg, “The Most Overused Superlative Ever”, published in the LA Times on August 2, 2004. Accessed online: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-aug-02-et-rivenburg2-story.html