Selling your investments when markets appear to be in crisis mode may feel like the right thing to do. However, decades’ worth of market data show that staying invested through volatile times has been a smart route to take to pursue long-term financial goals. For millennial investors who may not have experienced the sharp market declines of the Financial Crisis of 2008–2009, today’s extremes may be even more unsettling. But if you’re investing for goals 5, 10 or 30 years away, here are three reasons why you should avoid emotion-based investment decisions.
1. Markets have historically been resilient: Despite facing decade after decade of wars, virus outbreaks, natural disasters, recessions, and financial crisis, markets continued to climb higher over the past 30 years. Consider how these hypothetical $10,000 investments allocated to stocks and bonds grew over 30 years, ending 12/31/2024.
April 16, 2025
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5 min