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It’s often said that the market doesn’t like uncertainty. How about you and friends, do you like uncertainty? This period of the Great Dislocation has yanked us from what anchors our active lives. For millions of Americans, gone are the regular schedules for work, school, entertainment, shopping for groceries, going to the gym, seeing friends and family. Savings are being spent because income has stopped.
What is certain is:
- Americans are dying of Covid-19
- The stock and bond markets have declined and are gyrating
- People continue to love their families and friends
- People are brave, kind and devoted to caring for others
Some people are right out of Arthur Miller’s play All My Sons, in which the lead character lies and protects the profits of his business and sends out faulty airplane parts which cause the deaths of American soldiers.
No doubt, you and I have other certainties we can list.
For those of us under “stay at home” orders, we ask…
- When will the restrictions be lifted?
- Will there be work to go to?
- When will we be free of the corona virus?
We don’t know answers to those questions. It’s all up in the air- that very air that can carry the virus. But then, wasn’t uncertainty the daily state of mind for people living through WWII? Did they know when the war would end, or who would win? In your family, did someone have a biopsy or a critical medical test? What did waiting for the results feel like?
In these early months of 2020, we keep saying to each other that these health and financial circumstances are unprecedented. Which course of action is best? We’re uneasy, frightened and anxious because we are aware that wrong choices can lead to people dying, small businesses failing and economies collapsing.
However, consider this: underneath our plans, appointments and to do lists is more uncertainty than we want to acknowledge. It’s as if every day we get up and go through our day walking on a tightrope. When we get back home, without a fall, we don’t think about the safety net beneath the tightrope. We didn’t need it because we didn’t fall. That’s how it’s supposed to be. That’s the order and certainty we expect. We walk that tightrope with courage, flexibility, optimism, doubts and the best life skills we have.
This Great Dislocation has made us aware that many of us can fall at the same time and we need a strong community safety-net. That protective safety-net is made of compassionate, active, creative, intelligent people. It should be reinforced by government systems and funding. We’ve found that the safety-net has tears and needs repair. We can repair it if we stay focused.
We can also strengthen our own safety-net by committing ourselves to our values, the causes that matter to us, the people we love and protect, and the good we can do for others. We have the power to do good. Exercising that power can give us a sense of purpose and control. It can anchor us and allow us to face what we intuitively know: uncertainty is normal. Let us take heart from the fact that we have walked that tightrope thousands of times successfully. We can keep doing that. Although we, like the markets, might not like uncertainty, we both have a history of resilience and managing uncertainty.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.4.6″ text_font_size=”14px”]Penelope S. Tzougros, PhD, ChFC, CLU. Financial Planner, Author, National Speaker. Wealthy Choices.com. [email protected]. In all 50 states, Penelope S. Tzougros is registered with, and securities and advisory services are offered through, LPL Financial, a registered investment advisor. Member FINRA/SIPC.
The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. All performance referenced is historical and is no guarantee of future results. The economic forecasts set forth in this material may not develop as predicted and there can be no guarantee that strategies promoted will be successful.[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]