Remember that Markets Don’t Always Go Up

Ever since 2009, we’ve been in a huge market upswing. Stocks have risen, bonds have risen, private equity has been huge, home prices have gone way up, and most recently (and meteorically) Bitcoin has gone up by 20x in a year.

While my generation (Millennials) may have been in school during the great recession, most of us weren’t really productive members of society with savings and investments yet. Now we are, and we’re about to get shocked by a market correction (or possibly an overdue recession).

Don’t panic. It’s not the end of the world.

Assuming you haven’t tied up all your savings in cryptocurrency or a single company’s stock, you won’t lose everything when the market goes down. You’ll just have to ride out the wave and remember that pulling out when things look bad is the worst thing you can do as a long-term investor. We’ve got lots of time to see many more bubbles rise and burst and many more industries be born, so don’t let the downs get you.

If anything, a little correction will be good as it will remind you that nothing is a sure bet and quick money isn’t really as easy at it seems. Better to get burned a little bit now than to lose it all in a Ponzi scheme later because you believe any hype you hear.