Focus on what you can control
We’re living in a strange time to be saving for retirement. Think of all the moving parts. The pandemic, the economy, mounting national debt, the threat of increasing interest rates, our political environment, rising unemployment, and even knowing you might become a part of the unemployment statistics at any time. This is just for starters. What about all the things that may happen that we don’t even know about?
Surely, then, this is a time when you really need to be putting your energy into choosing your investments and knowing when to pull into and out of the market. The “smart money” is ready to move fast, right?
Hold on. Now is the time to stick to your plan more than ever. It is time to show discipline and stick to the things you can control. Everything I’ve mentioned previously is out of your control. We don’t know what is going to happen with the stock market, besides the fact that it will go both up and down. Interest rates and inflation? Who knows where they’ll be? How quickly will the vaccine be rolled out and how effective will it be? Will this be enough to get our economy back on track and get people’s jobs back? All of these are out of our control.
So what can we control when we’re saving for retirement? First and foremost, you control how much you are saving. This is arguably the most important determinant of how much you’ll have in retirement anyway. It’s totally in your control. Your job is to keep putting money away. Second, you can control your debt. Stop adding to it and start getting rid of it. Especially the bad debt such as credit cards. I do realize these first two points may be temporarily out of your control if you do lose your job. Third, you can control your asset allocation, which is your mix of stocks, bonds, and cash. Of course, you can’t control which assets will outperform the others, but you totally control where you invest your money. Lastly, you can control the fees and expenses associated with your investments. Do a review of your funds and their fees. Can you do better? Are you paying unnecessary high fees? Are you using low-cost index funds and ETFs where it makes sense for you?
Even though it seems that now is a tough time to invest, it’s that way because our world is enduring a tough stretch. Don’t over-think things right now. Stick to your plan and the things you can control.