Tariffs, trade wars, inflation, interest rates, government spending, political fighting, foreign wars
ongoing labor shortages, an aging population, social security uncertainty, and so much more.
These all make for sensational headlines, reasons to worry and are the subject of many
conversations. Interestingly enough though, there have always been reasons to worry, including
worrying about our money.

A quick look back at history reminds us of what we’ve gotten through as a country and
financially. Two World Wars, a great depression, and an attack on American soil in 1941 with
the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Consumer goods shortages in 1944, the beginning of the Cold War
in 1947, the Soviets detonating an atomic bomb in 1949, and the Korean War in 1950. The
Soviets detonated an H-bomb in 1953, Castro seized power in Cuba in 1959, and the Berlin Wall
was erected in 1961. The Cuban missile crisis happened in 1962 and President Kennedy was
assassinated in 1963. It must have been rather stressful to live through the late 1960’s with the
Vietnam War and in the 1970’s we dealt with Watergate, an oil embargo, an energy crisis and
the Three Mile Island nuclear accident. Inflation ran rampant in the late 1970s and early 1980s,
and in 1981, both President Reagan and the Pope were shot. The late 1980’s brought the Savings
and Loan crisis as well as Black Monday on October 19, 1987 when the stock market fell by
20% in a single day. The fed raised interest rates six times in 1994, and the end of the 90’s
brought the crash of technology stocks, fears of Y2K and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The
subprime mortgage market melted down, leading to the great recession in 2008. Unemployment
hit 10% in 2009 and we faced a “Fiscal Cliff” and downgrade of US debt in 2012. The 20-teens
brought hurricanes, trade wars, and then, the infamous Covid-19 pandemic. We got through all
of it.

I could tell you what a few dollars invested in the stock market would have turned into going all
the way back to the beginning of worry, but most of us don’t have that kind of time horizon. An
interesting 10 year segment is 1968-1978, when the S&P 500 began at 96.47 and ended right
back where it started, at 96.11, the epitome of a flat decade. That may lead one to worry that
investing during those ten years would have gotten them nowhere. However, had one invested
$10,000 in stocks to mirror the S&P 500 during that time frame and reinvested their dividends,
their ten grand would have grown to $15,174.

A disciplined investment strategy includes remembering that when headlines sizzle and markets
gyrate, we recall that there has always been something to worry about.

LouAnn Schulfer of Schulfer & Associates, LLC Wealth Management can be reached at (715)
343-9600 or louann.schulfer@lpl.com TheWealthInformationLady.com 
SchulferAndAssociates.com , or louann.biz

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