What shapes your financial plan?
Your financial plan should drive your investment decisions. Not the other way around.
The headlines of your life—be they present needs or future plans—should influence your decisions more than the headlines of the news.
Far too many people are susceptible to the wrong things influencing their investment decisions and negatively impacting their future.
Here are three Ps that should not be the primary guide of your financial planning.
#1 Pullbacks in stocks.
At the time of this writing (March 19, 2026), we have been in a 5% pullback on the S&P 500.
This shouldn’t be surprising—not just because of the geopolitical news—but because it happens a lot. Since 1950, there have been over 70 of these.
Investing $100,000 in 1950 in the S&P 500 would be worth almost $4,000,000 dollars now.
Imagine allowing the drawdowns along the way to dictate your investment decisions and potentially derail your plan.
#2 Politics.
One financial writer put it this way:
A hill I will die on:
For the vast majority of investors, their trading style is simply their political views expressed in mathematical terms.1
If you always express your politics in your trades, the math doesn’t support this investment thesis.
Your like or dislike for a president should not dictate your portfolio.
#3 Predictions
We humans love dire predictions. Apocalyptic views sell.
For example, the author of The Population Bomb in the 1960s, which predicted catastrophe for the world in the near future, recently died.
His predictions were wrong.
Eddy Elfenbein summarizes:
The public loved it. The Population Bomb sold more than three million copies. In 1974, Ehrlich and his wife wrote The End of Affluence which held that “before 1985, mankind will enter a genuine age of scarcity.” Ehrlich later said, “If I were a gambler, I would take even money that England will not exist in the year 2000.”
You might say that he was a wee bit off. Or as the New York Times put it, “he faced criticism when his predictions proved premature.” Yes, premature…
If you predict the apocalypse and you’re wrong, you’re rarely held to account.2
Don’t build your portfolio on predictions. Build it—conscious of risk management—on a plan.
Stocks may or may not belong in every account—it depends on the purpose. For some, bonds, CDs, or money markets are more appropriate.
The primary issue to keep at the center of your attention is the purpose of said account. Only deploy money and make investment decisions when that has been determined.
If the goal of account A is retirement 10-40 years from now, that account will look a lot different than account B that will pay for a house in 3 years, or account C that is used to live off the interest, or account D that is used as an emergency account.
Know the purpose of your accounts and how they fit into your overall financial plan.
Don’t let regular pullbacks or partisan politics or dire predictions keep you from your purpose and goals.
--
Sources:
- Jared Dillian published on X on March 16, 2026. Accessed online.
- “CWM Market Review - March 17, 2026”. Accessed online.