The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Are You Sabotaging Your Investments Because Of Your Political Views?

Yesterday, I talked about a left-leaning former advisor colleague of mine who let his political views sabotage not only his own investment returns, but those of his clients as well. 

Today, I’m talking about a common problem I see among people on the right side of the political spectrum, which is they tend to be a little too pessimistic, thinking that the sky is falling.

[story about client who went to cash…doesn’t trust the government…watches too much Tucker Carlson and many YouTube videos that have scared him into thinking the world is coming to an end…he abandoned his long term investment strategy, went to cash earning nothing, and went so far as to stop contributing to his retirement accounts, because as he said - didn’t want to flush his money down the toilet anymore]. 

He allowed his political beliefs and negative outlook about the future to sabotage his financial security in retirement. It’s likely that he’ll never get back in to the stock market, start saving again, and if he does, it will likely be too late to make any real difference. 

The truth is the world is always a scary and uncertain place and there are always reasons not to invest. I was born in 1985, and in that year the US became a debtor nation, and we haven’t looked back since, have we? Then in 1986, the US bombed Libya, the year after that was a record setting stock market decline on Black Monday, followed by a string a bank failures in 1988…Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, a recession hits the US in 91, LA Riots in 1992, and the Fed raised interest rates 6 times in 1994. 

Does any of this sound familiar? National debt, stock market declines, financial stress, war, riots, and interest rate hikes. History doesn’t repeat, but it does rhyme. 

Yet, despite all of this, the stock market had an incredible run during the first decade of my life, and it’s had a great run since then too. 

So if you’re like chicken little and you’re tempted to let your political bias and your fears about the future influence your investment and financial decisions, it’s important to be a student of history. The world will come to an end at some point, but it’s likely not happening today or this year, or in your lifetime. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. 

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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance