This week I’m talking about investing in an election year. A lot of people are nervous about investing during an election year, but there are actually several reasons why election years are great for the stock market and great for your retirement portfolio! 

As long as you know what to expect, you’ll be able to stay focused on what matters and not worry about everything else. 

Today, I’m talking about the elephant in the room - Coronavirus and the civil unrest that began after the killing of George Floyd. Typically in a Presidential election year, it’s all we’d be talking about at this point with the election less than a few months away. 

But COVID and the civil unrest changed all of that. The stock market and the economy have obviously reacted strongly to COVID, but at this point the markets have had almost zero reaction to the protests, despite their daily dominance in the news and social media. 

Historically, when you look at other times of civil unrest - think large Vietnam war protests, the LA riots, etc. - the market doesn’t respond to these types of events. This year it’s been no different. The stock market was up slightly in the month of June as the civil unrest, protesting, and the country of CHAZ emerged, probably because this unrest is unlikely to do any significant economic damage. 

COVID on the other hand, will still bring uncertainty to a year otherwise dominated by PResidential debates, rallies, and overly politicized facebook feeds. 

As the election approaches - inside of 2-3 months - you’ll likely see the news shift more into this arena, with the protests likely to have mostly subsided and COVID taking a backseat as well. 

So while this Presidential election year is vastly different than previous election cycles, we should see some typical patterns begin to emerge as the election draws near, and I’ll talk about what those are tomorrow. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip. 

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