Preview:

We haven’t lacking headlines over the past six months but the craziness can provide some valuable lessons for investors. In this episode, we take a closer look at the recent fluctuations in the financial markets and the emotional responses of investors during turbulent times.

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More About This Episode:

As we reflect on the events from late 2024 and the beginning of 2025, we highlight the importance of maintaining a long-term perspective. The discussions around market reactions to political events and economic news serve as a reminder of how quickly emotions can sway decision-making. Ryan shares some personal anecdotes about people who panicked at the slightest hint of market downturns, emphasizing the need for a calm and rational approach.

Understanding the purpose of your investments is crucial. Many investors fall into the trap of reacting impulsively to headlines, often overlooking the bigger picture of their financial goals. By focusing on long-term strategies, you can mitigate the emotional turmoil that often accompanies market fluctuations.

Here’s what we cover in this episode:

0:00 – Looking back on 2024

1:00 – Bumpy start to 2025

2:12 – Emotional reactions

4:30 – Maintaining a long-term view

6:29 – The best investors

8:58 – Understanding the market


Resources:

Retire Pilots – https://retirepilots.com

Get your FREE Retirement Toolkit – https://bit.ly/3ZmZsaX

Pilot Tax – https://pilot-tax.com/

The Pilot’s Advisor Podcast is also on video. Watch & Subscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3EIEBW2

Connect with Pilot-Tax: https://pilot-tax.com/

Episode Transcription:

(Note, this is an automated transcription. Please forgive any errors.)

Ryan Fleming: I think there’s been some crazy, crazy things that have already happened, uh, just in the past six months, especially the beginning of 2025. And I think a lot of them are very, very good lessons to learn. You know, just in the financial side of things. 20, um, 24 was a great year. Um, you know, things. It was a great market. The last two. A couple things, I think about it, near the last quarter of 2024 though, was, was the presidential election. And as that was coming up, um, many investors started freaking out. They, they wanted to time the market, they wanted to get into cash, sit on the sidelines because of course there was unknowns of who was going to win. And I had to talk a lot of investors off the ledge. You know, hey, we’re not doing that. We got to play the long term game. Of course Donald Trump was elected. Markets took off. There was that whole Trump effect. And so I feel like I saved a lot of my clients from making a bad, bad decision then. And then 2025 has happened and it’s been the exact same thing. I mean, you know, and I’ll ask you to comment on this, but it’s, it’s been a very bumpy January. We’ve had. First of all, there was unknowns about the handoff, uh, of the president, you know, the inauguration. We’ve had deep seek that came out, uh, where the Chinese AI, you know, on Monday morning was, hey, here’s what’s going on. Markets were entering in turmoil, but by.

Walter Storholt: Friday it was old news. Like, what’s that? By Friday it was old news or just things come on the radar and they drop off so fast? As one thing I’ve learned.

Ryan Fleming: Well, and it happened two Mondays in a row. And of course I have to watch this, you know, very closely. But I, the, the following weekend I already, I was like, oh God, here we go again. Monday morning, futures are going to open way down because everybody’s panicking about the tariffs and the markets are going to explode. And in both cases it was very, very, uh, uh, over. Overreaction by the markets, a huge sell off. By the end of the day, things are coming back to normal. Um, but it just goes to show you, uh, just how crazy things are and how quickly things can happen and how investors are emotional. Um, how have you seen the last two weeks? What would you have to add to what you’ve seen from the outside looking in?

Walter Storholt: Yeah, I mean, same kind of idea. One, amazement at just the amount of panic that constantly gets kind of thrown at us and we get Told to react that way and feel that way. And I feel like as I get older I’m able to stabilize that even more and take that extra beat to step back and say, okay, well, what if I choose not to have a panic reaction to what I’m supposed to panic about? And by being able to kind of just level out those reactions, it just kind of makes you chuckle a little bit to see how fast these, you know, supposedly, uh, Earth ending types of actions and decisions, uh, are. They don’t usually work out that way. They may be right one day and we’re, you know, due for a market change. We go down a little bit, but we know what happens to markets in the long term. So if you have that long term view and strategy, I think it just causes a lot less of that panic to, to seep into you.

Ryan Fleming: Well, yeah, and I think, you know, ignorance is bliss. I mean, if you weren’t even watching things, you’d be all fat and happy and everything would work out in the end, right? Yeah. Um, but I have clients call me on Sunday night in a complete panic, like, what are we going to do? What’s the strategy? Oh, you know, and, uh, you know, and sometimes I almost feel like people aren’t even reading then, like, what’s actually going on. They’re just taking the headlines or, you know, whatever’s being thrown out on Fox or CNN now the world’s going to implode. I, um, actually had a Vance Howard show his frustration the other day because he’s like, I’m not even sure if any of these investors or Americans even read what was in this tariff thing, you know, what it was trying to entail and watching the reactions and the interviews on tv. Now, of course this goes back into market timing versus taking advantage of things that are going to happen in the market. Um, obviously I don’t think anybody should time the market emotionally. You know, I think the market’s going to do this, I think the market’s going to do that, or, you know, so and so’s election. I don’t think you should ever be getting totally on the sidelines. But when these overreactions happen. Yeah. Do you think. I’m not buying into it. I absolutely am. Do you not think that we’re going to reallocate into that? We absolutely do because it’s an opportunity, but it’s a very short term opportunity. And of course staying in the market is way, way more important than trying to jump in and jump out and going to cash and everything else that you see A lot of investors do that, try to hurt themselves, but lots.

Walter Storholt: Of action, it always seems to come back to, to context and also I guess, purpose, like the purpose of your dollars and then understand the context for what you’re consuming. And so if someone’s spouting off about what’s going to happen and their perspective or their context is that they’re a short term trader, well, that reaction doesn’t equal you. If your dollars and their purpose is to serve you in retirement 15 or 20 years from now. Like those two things are very mismatched. So you kind of can tune

00:05:00

Walter Storholt: out this reaction to the short term impact because you’ve got a 15, 20 year time horizon. So don’t panic about the purpose of these dollars over a short term impact. That has no bearing really on the, on that long term success plan. So preach it to the choir context in a lot of things in this world and that’s certainly evident in the financial world.

Ryan Fleming: Preaching to the choir. And that was great because it’s so true. I mean, it’s so true. And really when the market has a nice pullback and you’re still saving for retirement, it’s an amazing thing because you’re buying more than you would have. Cause the market’s down and if the market stays down for a while and the more 401k contributions you can get in there, the better off you’re going to be.

Walter Storholt: I’ve had that reaction as the market goes down in prior years when you have those. It’s so funny because uh, you get very divided because we’ve got like a short term savings account and you’re like, oh. But then in the long term savings account you’re like, yeah. So it’s a little Jekyll and Hyde in those moments, you know.

Ryan Fleming: Well, and no different than as you start getting closer to retirement. You have to have some safe money for, you know, what we call sequence of returns risk. Because if you have a down market in that first year, you retire and you need income. You don’t want to be liquidating things while they’re down. So we have to have some safe money and we, you know, we plan for those things or even when we build a portfolio, we plan for a long term growth portfolio when you have all that time and the short blips on the radar don’t, don’t matter. I mean it’s, it’s built into the plan. So uh, I, the best investors that I found are the ones that focus on what they’re good at. And that’s Flying airplanes, saving, saving, um, and spending time with their family and let us focus on our job and what we do. And that’s to be unemotional long term and take, take advantage of, you know, the little blips as best we can, but still with a long term vision.

Ryan’s retirement toolkit is tailor made for pilots like you

Walter Storholt: Attention aviators. When you’ve spent years in the cockpit managing the complexities of flight, isn’t it time you navigated your retirement with the same precision? Introducing retirepilots.com right at your touchdown zone. Um, on our homepage there’s a beacon flashing get my free toolkit. Click that and you’ll be cleared for a direct route to Ryan’s retirement toolkit tailor made for pilots like you. Inside you’ll find two of his important works. The Pilot’s Advisor and Pilots Retire early. Between these two books, you can decipher the nine critical decisions when retiring before 65 and discover the seven lessons to help pilots land safely in retirement. But that’s not all. This toolkit is packed, packed with altitude, high value, including extras to get your retirement plans off the Runway and light the afterburners on your 401k.

Not understanding investing and, and not understanding how the markets work can lead to emotional reactions

Vector on over to retirepilots.com to grab your toolkit and let’s embark on this journey together. I think it’s those things that move the needle the most and we can steer this directly toward pilots. As you know, if you have just saved for retirement into one account and it’s grown into a big pot, but it’s all in the market, it’s all invested somewhat similarly. Yeah, you’re going to be on a huge roller coaster ride of emotions and the closer you get to retirement, seeing those enormous swings is going to drive you crazy. And so the small difference of just working with someone who’s going to be able to allocate you appropriately, build in some of those buffers and explain to you the purpose of those dollars. Because a lot of people don’t understand the purpose of maybe different buckets of money or different reasons. We’ve got this segmented over here or diversified in this way. It’s all to give you that comfort, that understanding and that uh, I don’t know, peace of mind I suppose about what’s going to happen in your financial future. That’s what a plan supposed to give you. Um, and a lot of people I think over overlook that fact because they maybe are just invested in that one way and they’re along for the ride. So how are you not supposed to react emotionally?

Ryan Fleming: Well, 100% and at the same time just not understanding how the markets work. I think just not understanding investing and, and not understanding how the markets work would inherently cause you to be a little bit more emotional or reactive. Um, because so many times, you know, the market has a little, uh, downturn and people think they lost all that money. Well, in reality, you still own the exact same amount of shares that you had before. It just fluctuates. And you didn’t, you know, just lose that money. No different than when it goes up. You didn’t, you know, realize, I guess, all that money at that point in time. It’s just where your account balance is then. And yes, people are very reactive for sure.

Ryan’s Pilots advisor toolkit helps pilots understand basics of retirement planning

Walter Storholt: Well, if you want to take a great next step to learn a little bit more about your finances, about how to put together a proper retirement plan, if you’re a pilot that’s been saving heavily over the years, but you don’t exactly know how to go from that accumulation stage where you’re saving all of that money to, okay, how am I going to distribute this in retirement? That’s where Ryan’s Pilots advisor toolkit comes in handy, helping walk you through some of the basics

00:10:00

Walter Storholt: of retirement planning. You can read Ryan’s books. When you order that toolkit for free, tap into some really great knowledge and expertise there. Um, it also comes with a free portfolio analysis, right, Ryan?

Ryan Fleming: Yeah, that’s true. If you order the toolkit, you’ll get a free portfolio analysis. I haven’t met, uh, with one person that I don’t think they got something out of it. Uh, we’ll actually analyze your portfolio for free, uh, set up a zoom call, go over it with you, show you the numbers, and possibly show you some other opportunities of how you can do better investing your money. And, uh, like I said, it’s free. And I don’t think I’ve had one person that wasn’t very thankful for what they did get out of it.

Walter Storholt: Yeah, you’re not obligated to do anything after that. It’s a free opportunity to kind of get a reality check, which Ryan likes to give to folks and keep it real of where you stand right now. And maybe some ways that you can move that needle, um, in your retirement future. So never hurts to get a free analysis and look at that plan. And if you want to engage further from there and go through a full blown planning process with Ryan, you can certainly do that, um, and look to hire him as an advisor. But why not take advantage of the free opportunity if you’re a pilot out there? So go to retirepilots.com if you want to get the free toolkit, that’s the best way to engage with Ryan and his team right now.

Ryan, good thoughts on the last couple of months, beginning of 2025

That’s retirepilots.com we’ve got that link in the description of today’s show as well. Ryan, good thoughts on the last couple of months, beginning of 2025 and what you’ve been keeping your eye on. And I know we’ll be hearing more from you soon.

Ryan Fleming: Let’s think long term. We’ll win. Stay disciplined. Fly SAF Information is for illustrative purposes only and does not constitute tax, investment or legal advice. Always consult with a qualified investment, legal or tax professional before taking any action.