The Ups and Downs of Investing

You don’t have to work on Wall Street to be an investor. But you have to be willing to spend some time choosing investments, and you have to stay tuned and be patient. Generally speaking, the longer your money is invested, the larger your account value will be — thanks to the power of compounding.

While your money is invested, your account value changes regularly. One month you could see a gain in value, and another month a loss. Some investments might even be worth less than you paid for them at various times. These price changes reflect what’s happening overall in the investment markets, what’s happening with an individual company, and sometimes what’s happening with both.

You can’t predict the timing of this up and down cycle, so your best strategy is to sit tight when values are down and focus on the long-term results.

 

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