#long-term-investing

#long-term-investing

When market volatility shakes our confidence and headlines scream uncertainty, I remind people that the real risk isn't the ups and downs-it's our reaction to them. In 2025, amid escalating global trade tensions, steep tariffs, stubborn inflation and a government shutdown, we've witnessed wave after wave of turbulence. Yet from decades in financial services, I've learned a simple truth: Your biggest risk isn't market volatility - it's how you respond to it. Rather than be reactive and try to time the market, it's important to stay the course.

Several investors have built strategies focused on long-term structural trends, accepting near-term volatility in exchange for exposure to multi-decade opportunities. These individuals identify fundamental shifts in demographics, technology, or economic organization that create persistent tailwinds for specific sectors or geographies. This approach requires conviction to maintain positions through market cycles and patience to allow theses to play out over extended periods. Investors pursuing long-term structural strategies often accept illiquidity, concentrate portfolios more than conventional wisdom suggests, and communicate perspectives that diverge from consensus views.

CEO Larry Fink said the global market currently holds more than $4.5 trillion in digital wallets, spanning crypto, stablecoins, and tokenized assets. "A lot of that money is outside the United States," Fink said on CNBC earlier today, emphasizing the opportunity for the firm to reach new investors through digital channels. Fink said tokenization could allow investors who are entering markets through crypto to access more traditional long-term products, such as retirement funds.

1. Start simple - you don't need to be a trader "You can make it extremely complicated if you're a trader, but you don't have to be," Ellard-King said. Rather than spending hours glued to screens and options, he recommended mainly investing your money in index funds that track the broader market. "Just let the smartest companies in the world do their thing," he said.

Indeed, valuations are quite high on select AI stocks that have gained high double-digit percentage points so far this year. And the S&P 500 is certainly skewing towards the higher end of the valuation range. But above-average valuation metrics do not necessarily mean that the stock market is about to blow up in devastating fashion, with tech stocks imploding as they did just a quarter of a century ago.

Schwab has one of the longest track records in the ETF space and offers comprehensive, well-diversified stock portfolios at some of the lowest fees available.

Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF (VIG) offers a 1.7% yield, significantly higher than the S&P 500's yield, combined with an expense ratio of only 0.05%.