Since the election on November 8th it has been interesting to watch the reactions. Depending on who you listen to or read President-elect Donald Trump is going to not only destroy American his first 100 days but also most of the civilized world.
Not only do I not believe that will be the case; I also don’t believe that electing Hillary Clinton would destroy America or the free world. While I do believe that one person can make a difference in the direction of the country, I don’t believe that one person can destroy a country, especially this country. I remember similar predictions when President Obama was elected and while I would like things to be different today than they are, he did not destroy America.
As many of you know, I am all about the individual. So going back several elections, the question remains: “Are you better off today than you were 4 or 8 years ago?” If not, why not, and if the answer is no, whose fault is it? I would venture to say that much of why you are where you are is because of decisions that you have made and actions you have taken. Quite honestly, most of the people I know are better off today than they were several years ago; they just don’t “feel” better off.
Growing up my dad used to remind me that I needed to separate fact from feelings. Still good advice today.
Will the market move on emotion? Of course, it will, but eventually it will come back to basic fundamentals and earnings. Companies will not grow and/or last long without being profitable and having continuous earnings growth.
I will contend that when the market has big swings supposedly based on some “news”, that someone somewhere is playing the emotional card and trying to take advantage of an emotional reaction. Understand that I don’t think this is wrong or evil, it just is, but you cannot let the emotional swing create an emotional reaction for you.
A slow and steady strategy that separates fact from feelings and depends on your own individual judgement will make you better off 4 years from now than you are today. One person will not destroy this country. Can one person make the country better than another person might have made it? Sure, but “what if” scenarios can be discussed forever but get us nowhere.
President-elect Trump is reality. The question now is, as an individual, how do we benefit from this reality? That is the question for my next column.
An Economy Of One 