2020 has its first of maybe several surprises of the year, The Coronavirus.
This is a great time to evaluate what we know, don’t know and what we have control over. These steps can help us in our decision making.
The virus itself is just at its beginning and we don’t know just how much it will spread. We don’t know what kind of impact it will have on the economy. This could very well be over in a few days or it could be around for a while. With that in mind, what has the effect been from similar health scares over the past 20 years?
We’ve had Ebola. We have had the Swine Flu, SARS, Avian Flu, Measles. Every year we have different Flu Strands. The media has stirred up panic and the economic impact has been temporary.
Yes, corporate earnings could possibly be impacted if the situation gets worse and the markets could go down further. If its anything like the other health scares it could be temporary as well. If the markets down go down further we should see if this might be an opportunity to take any cash we’ve been sitting on and invest it while there’s a “sale”. These kinds of events may be scary at the time but they also may give us an opportunity to practice the behavior of “buying low”.
What would the media talk about is this wasn’t going on? If you tun on any media outlet today the Coronavirus is the dominating topic. What happens when its over? What panic will they elicit then? Who knows? What I do know is that they will find something that they’ll be certain is a big deal.
What else do we know? We know we can’t control what the news talks about. We know we can’t control what others do with their investments. We know that all we can control is what we choose to pay attention to and what we do as a response.
Nelson Negron
President/Wealth Management Advisor
Provident Oak Financial, LLC.
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