Content provided by Michele Prell, New Business Manager

A recent survey done by Bankrate.com showed that 26 percent of Americans feel that the money they invest that won’t be needed for 10 or more years would be better served placed in cash.  Only 14 percent believe that long term investments in the stock market would be the better choice. Though cash, or the use of a bank for short term safety, makes sense for small amounts of cash you need within the next couple of years, the interest you earn isn’t really enough to keep up with inflation. True, you may be earning interest, and you don’t see your accounts go down in value, but you are also not able to outpace a threat of a negative yield.

Our media culture has made the thought of investing in the stock market seem risky, and rightfully so because there are never guarantees when investing in the market.  What we need to do as financial professionals, and as part of our fiduciary responsibility to clients, is to provide education on the basics of finances and economics. We believe a good, disciplined approach to long term investing allows investors to make use of a diversified portfolio in order to spread that risk out more broadly, so that the fluctuations which occur normally in the markets become more acceptable, rather than an exception. We also need to help investors understand that when investing for the long term, they are going to see individual funds decline when others may gain, but overall, we believe the portfolio should be expected to grow.