During times of instability, it is important to keep a level head and look at your time horizon in regard to retirement, financial independence, and the need to utilize your investment returns.

The stock market has been INSANELY unstable this year. It goes up and then it goes down. Yesterday’s drop of 3-5% in the markets was shocking. I lost a lot of money. A 5-figure amount of money. Am I stressed? Not in the slightest… Why?

Because I don’t need the money in my investments right now.

I need them 7-10 years from now when I plan on “retiring.”

This is what I mean by knowing your time horizon with your investments.

If I needed that money 3 months from now then yes, I would be stressed out. But I am looking at the LONG TERM and in the long term, the market goes up secondary to innovation, growth, and inflation (historically).

So, during unstable times like we are seeing, do not worry yourself. DO NOT PANIC SELL. What you saw yesterday were people panic selling. You saw people investing based off emotion, and not logic.

Instead, look at drops in the stock market as times to BUY. Everything is significantly discounted right now. If you have some spare cash, then I would put it in the market and buy the lows. If you would have listened to my advice during the crash in March 2020, you would have made a lot of money.

During your path to nurse practitioner financial freedom, you need to identify your time horizon for when you are going to need to utilize your investments to live off of. If you don’t know that, then that is my challenge for you to figure out today: when do you want to semi-retire/retire/break free? Set a goal. That way you know when you will actually need the money you are investing. If you do this, then stock market fluctuations and drops like we are seeing will not concern you because you are looking at the LONG TERM.

For those that might be stressed out about what is happening in the markets: don’t be! Don’t look at your 401k, IRA, or brokerage accounts. It doesn’t matter in the LONG TERM.