As we get older, we acquire quite a robust library of life lessons. My life lessons tend to be accompanied by a vivid memory of when I first acquired each particular lesson/truth. For today's topic, I'd like to recall a memory from January 2020.  

I was sitting in my office in Newport Beach, conducting a review meeting with a client that had been with our firm for less than a year. The meeting was chock-full of very engaging questions, and we were pushing the ball down the field on the first iteration of their financial plan. One of my colleagues dropped in to introduce themselves, and the three of us got into a discussion about this new Covid-19 virus. We tackled questions like, what impact would Covid-19 have on society? Our economy? The market? Our investment portfolios? And so on...  

Again, this dialogue is one of those vivid memories I mentioned above. As we went around the table offering our opinions and forecasts, I remember comparing Covid-19 to the SARS virus and a former Ebola scare. I referred to the market's reactions to those events and offered a comparison that we could use to anchor our expectations. This dialogue wasn't just meant as banter, but the client wanted to know how they should react. I advised my client not to react and to stay the course of the current strategy and plan we had in place.  

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