I have been hearing that some are fearful we are re-living history and repeating the late 1970s hyperinflationary environment. Being a product of the ‘70s myself, I wanted to share a little history.

During that time, there was A LOT of negativity in the news…

1. US unemployment hit a 42 year high in 1982 at 9.7%
2. Inflation hit a 33 year high in 1980 at 14%
3. In 1980 Chrysler went into bankruptcy
4. President Anwar Sadat of Egypt was assassinated on Oct. 6, 1981
5. Israeli planes bombed nuclear reactors outside of Baghdad on June 7, 1981
6. The US had a double dip recession. First one was from January to July 1980. The second one was from July 1981 to November 1982.

As 1980 began, if you knew the next 3 years would bring all that bad news, would you have been willing to put $100,000 into the market? $100,000 invested in the S&P 500 on 12/31/79 was worth $153,041 three years later on 12/31/82. The average annualized rate of return was 15.42%. By the way, that's about 50% better than the long term 10% rate of return the market typically provides. If you felt like getting out at that point, but I told you to hang on since this was your long term money, by the end of the decade (12/31/89) your original $100,000 investment would have been worth $503,700. This equates to an average rate of return of 17.55%. That includes a one day drop of 22.61% in October 1987!

While past performance does not guarantee future results, don’t wait for good news to start investing. Now is the time to review your long term plan with your advisor and determine which strategies and assets work best in this unique environment. As always, feel free to reach out to me with any thoughts, questions or concerns.

Any opinions are those of Tisha Howard and not necessarily those of Raymond James. Expressions of opinion are as of this date and are subject to change without notice. The information contained here does not purport to be a complete description of the securities, markets, or developments referred to in this material. The information has been obtained from sources considered to be reliable, but we do not guarantee that the foregoing material is accurate or complete. Future investment performance cannot be guaranteed, investment yields will fluctuate with market conditions. Investing involves risk and you may incur a profit or loss regardless of strategy selected.

The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index of 500 widely held stocks that is generally considered representative of the U.S. stock market. Keep in mind that individuals cannot invest directly in any index, and index performance does not include transaction costs or other fees, which will affect actual investment performance. Individual investor's results will vary.

Examples are for illustrative purposes only.