The whispers are starting to be heard. After years of gloom and doom, with ubiquitous bad economic news everywhere, we are actually starting to hear it. Optimism. Dare we believe it?
After a seemingly endless bull-run, with unbridled optimism befitting of “trees grow to the sky” mentality, we fell into the great recession and became convinced that “trees will never grow again.” Sadly, but predictably, the former sentiment was entirely incorrect. But fortunately, so was the latter.
If you missed the move down, don’t beat yourself up too badly. Most everyone else did as well. Even the so-called experts. And do not be too upset when you hear your friends talk about their prescience in sheltering their wealth right before the economy fell off a cliff. Be happy for them and make a commitment to yourself to be more vigilant at the next inflection point.
That inflection point is now. The green shoots continue to grow, Unemployment is starting to wane. GDP numbers are surprising to the upside. Ignore the banality on the financial networks that decry that “less bad” is still “bad.” I’m not sure what curves they are anticipating, but if they actually had any real business experience, they would know that “hockey stick” turnaround predictions simply do not occur very often. Of course less bad is good, especially when it is a lot less bad, as the recent economic numbers have demonstrated.
So now the question is- do you have a post recession plan? A plan that will capitalize on the developing recovery. Perhaps you have the opportunity to find a better job as employers reverse field on the their draconian labor force reductions. Perhaps there is finally capital available for that business venture you have been considering.
Then there’s your investment portfolio, or at least what’s left of it. If you missed the opportunity to get out of the market when you could have, and resisted the temptation to get out when you absolutely should not have, do not miss this opportunity to decide to do something when you can.
Perhaps you stand pat or perhaps you do not. That is entirely up to you. I only encourage you to take note of this moment in time as one of those inflection points that become abundantly clear with the advantage of hindsight. Except that it is happening now.