Fears of a recession have been lessened by the rise in consumer spending. The economy is showing signs of resilience, with January posting a surprisingly strong increase in spending for a variety of goods. Lucia Mutikani summarizes the economic news from Reuters. While the market volatility may have investors thinking about selling their equities, Schwab cautions that could be a mistake. Even though global stocks have dipped in value, selling them now could diminish your success in the long term. A report from The Schwab Center for Financial Research explains. In fact, emotional selling is one of the primary pitfalls that can keep you from reaching your financial goals. As Brandon VanLandingham sees it, the key to investment success is understanding how emotions may interfere with your portfolio’s performance.
Strong U.S. Consumer Spending Counters Recession Fears– Core U.S. retail sales grew 0.6% in January, reversing a 0.3% decline in December, the Commerce Department said. The increase in consumer spending last month underscored the economy’s resilience and challenged the view that a recession was looming. Read more…
Market Volatility: What Investors Should Know– While we have experienced a 10% U.S. stock market correction twice in the past year—and some pockets of the equity market (for instance, the NASDAQ) have done worse—Schwab’s Center for Financial Research does not expect the current correction to turn into a broad-based bear market. Investors should also resist the urge to buy and sell based solely on recent market movements, as it could hobble their performance over time. Read more…
Emotional Knowledge Is Key To Investment Success– Investing is much more a mental game than an IQ game. It is not the smartest people that succeed in investing, it is the investors that are mentally prepared and mentally tough that succeed over long periods of time. We have all heard that investors tend to sell when they should be buying and buying when they should be selling. In this article, Brandon H. VanLandingham, explains that emotions are the single largest factor that inhibit investors from living out their investment and retirement dreams. Understanding the degree to which biases affect a person’s decision is a first step, striving to conquer these biases is a life long journey. Read more…
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