by Jean. 04/04/2025

With recent pullbacks in the stock market due to looming (and now active) tariffs, many are fearing further losses and even a qualified market correction (A drop of 10% or more from highs).

So this begs the question for less-seasoned investors: What should I do? If we look back at previous corrections and even market crashes like the 2008 financial crisis, it’s easy to conceptualize this moment as a potential buying opportunity for those with a longer time horizon. If you are an investor and not a trader, recognize that this will be temporary, but possibly ugly. With that being said, how much worse can it get?

The S&P 500 is currently down 7.86% over the last 5 trading days, and many are seeing equity flood from their portfolios. If we’ve established that we want to buy when markets are trading at lower multiples, we have to decide the “when”. Will prices continue to plunge? Unknown, nothing is promised in the stock market, so what is Jean doing?

Answer to the title is… HOLD, with a pinch of BUY

This is not financial advice, but I’ll happily tell you my plan. For the time being, I am staying on the sidelines mostly. I have been adding to the Magnificent 7 stocks in small increments, with other small purchases in consumer defensive stocks as well as SCHD (A dividend growth ETF). When I say small, I mean small, and this lack of buying activity is intentional, because I would say it’s a 50/50 shot that we see more market-wide sell-offs. I have a long-term mindset, I invest for growth AND dividends, and I try to accumulate shares at discounts. It isn’t clear which direction we are headed quite yet, but that’s okay. My strategy for times like this hasn’t changed. I will continue to put money in the market, and increase aggressiveness as things trend downward more.. If they do. Either way, stay the course, and if you can’t come up with your own strategy… dollar cost averaging will do just fine.