Sheryl Sutherland sees the current confusion and market volatility similar to other big financial shocks. She says we can learn a lot from those past events to get through this one

By Sheryl Sutherland*

Alert readers will recognise this; I wrote it in 2020 and thought it was well worth another airing.

So here we are stumbling through early 2025 with Trump still giving us grief. As Kipling advises, keep your head while all around you lose theirs.

One of my favourite writers, Nick Maggiulli, wrote of his biggest takeaways from COVID-impacted 2020. All these points are valid for any year really, I use them myself often but reminders of reality are always useful to keep the train of our emotional responses on the tracks.

1. Prices can always go lower - in life we know that even when it seems things can't get worse, seems they do.

2. The bigger the fall, the bigger the potential recovery, this can mean huge gains for those who hold tight.

3. Volatility is alive and well.

4. Price is what someone else is willing to pay for something - remember this may not be 'value'. Think of this when others look like they are losing their minds.

5. Bitcoin is not a safe haven - when there was blood in the streets its true colours shone through.

6. Markets often rhyme but rarely repeat.

7. Markets are not always efficient.

8. Sometimes none of the rules apply.

9. The late Jack Bogle was fond of saying "nobody knows nothing". Of course, predicting market behaviour is not so easy; my crystal ball broke in the earthquakes. If anyone had suggested the US market with the combined forces of Trump, and a pandemic, would rise by 10% in the last year I wouldn't have believed them.

10. Markets are complex and mystifying in the short term.

So, the best way to weather these storms is to have a plan and a support person - a qualified financial adviser.

*Sheryl Sutherland is director of The Financial Strategies Group, and author of Girls Just Want to Have Fund$ – Every Women’s Guide to Financial Independence, Money, Money, Money Ain’t it Funny – How to Wire your Brain for Wealth, and co-author of Smart Money – How to structure your New Zealand business or investments and pay less tax. You can contact her here.