abcInvesting™

The folks who write stock tip newsletters are more pessimistic than any time since July 1994, according to Bloomberg.  (Hat tip to Greg Mankiw.)  Well, what would have happened back in 1994 if you had ignored the pessimism and bought stocks anyway?  Let’s go to the chart:

I’ve marked July 1994 with a red diamond.  Turns out, that time of pessimism was a pretty good time to buy stocks.  In just 12 months time your assets were up 23 percent, plus you got dividends.  That’s better than twice as good as average stock market returns.

What’s the moral here?  Not to jump into stocks with both feet, but simply to ignore the doom and gloom attitudes all around you.  Stick with a good allocation of your assets, and don’t panic.