Preview:

With markets off to a volatile start in 2025, many investors are feeling uneasy. But should you be worried? Ryan took a break during a recent trip to an advisor conference to share some thoughts on the recent market pullback, explaining why it’s normal, healthy, and even an opportunity for long-term investors.

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More About This Episode:

Ryan dives into the biggest market trends, how automated trading is accelerating volatility, and why staying unemotional is key to success. He also shares why many investors panic during downturns and how dollar-cost averaging and strategic portfolio management can help you stay on course. Learn how to navigate uncertainty, avoid costly mistakes, and take advantage of market dips like a pro.

If you’re concerned about the latest market turbulence, please reach out and let’s have a discussion.

Here’s what we cover in this episode:

0:00 – Intro

1:00 – Fear and greed

3:27 – Buying opportunity

5:51 – It’s like flying


Resources:

Retire Pilots – https://retirepilots.com

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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: As time would have it, I’m actually at a hotel room in Denver about to attend another financial advisor conference. Uh, hesitated, sending out a video, wanted to see how this whole past week would play out. But as it turns out, it’s time for our March pie rep. So looking at the markets, obviously in 2025, it’s been a bumpy, bumpy road. Markets don’t like unknowns. And of course with all the Trump tariffs, uh, deep sake, uh, bad jobs report, there’s many, many, many things. The other side of it that we got to think about is that uh, with all the automated trading now and so much money in big tech, if uh, there’s any pullback at all, there’s so many automated trades that happen so that the market starts to move a lot more than it historically would. And looking at it right now after a good Friday, I mean we’re only down between 5 and 6% on the year. Now the funny part about uh, the markets, when I look at, I love the markets, I think that owning assets, owning equities is the greatest wealth creation tool of mankind. However, the biggest block to that, and of course I call it the whole fear and greed play. And pilots fall right into this. But with the fear and greed there comes emotion. And we get into this subset where we just feel like the market goes up forever. And one of the things I like about finance, uh, the most is behavioral finance because everything they go dig into and you look, we are our worst enemies making those short term emotional decisions. And I try to educate my clients as much as possible so that when we have a small pullback like this, there’s no panic. And it’s funny because I always have a good gauge on where we’re sitting because of the amount of people that will reach out to me. And I’d be like, hey, I, uh, don’t know if you know this or not, but my account is down $150,000 since, uh, the end of the year. Yeah, I’m very aware of what’s going on in the market. I’m very aware that there’s been a pullback. And the first thing I’ll say about that is, number one, no different than we have a glass ceiling and we have to get through that before the market takes off again. These pullbacks are actually very, very normal and actually healthy because what we’re trying to do is solidify some of those gains where the market’s really taken off. And by having those pullbacks, those healthy pullback, um, it’s actually solidifying Some of those gains so that the market can go higher. And in most cases, if you look historically after some of these pullbacks, that’s when, and things get solidified again. That’s when the market takes off again. So I look at it as nothing but an opportunity. And for any of those people that are long term or have cash sitting on the sidelines, this is nothing but an opportunity to buy in. Um, you look at Tesla, you look at Nvidia, I mean, some of these stocks are just beautiful, beaten down over the past week. I mean, I want to say Tesla was down like 40 something crazy. Anyway, it’s a buying opportunity. It’s a way for you to reallocate your assets and take advantage of the down market. All the analytics are still showing that things are totally positive. And I’ll do a, uh, history lesson on this. But more than 50% of the years that we have a positive return in the s and P500, there’s a 10% or more pullback in that market. But nobody really remembers that. They don’t remember the pain of that. They just see, hey, we’re up this year. Um, you know, I think about those all the time because I know that they’re going to happen. It’s totally normal. It’s just risk and reward. That volatility is what gets us our return. So do I look at this and think is any reason why we should panic at all? Absolutely not. I look at it as an opportunity. I know you don’t like looking at it in your accounts. And that’s something else that’s very relative to me. Um, a lot of, uh, clients will want to tell me how much they lost in their account. I lost $50,000. I lost 300,000 dol. Thousand dollars. Well, it’s all relative to percentages. And you know, we all like to think about things in different ways, but all I really care about is the percentage of loss. Looking at a certain situation, looking at what’s going on in the market. How much of a pullback is this? Because a 10 pullback is completely healthy, it’s completely normal. And um, something that’s been a little bit different about this pullback is just that it happened really, really quick with the automated sell offs, with big tech taking a big, big hit. Uh, the market’s moving a lot faster than it has historically. So you might get that 5, 6, 7% change in the market value only over three to four days. And that’s scary. And I get why that’s scary. I get why people get nervous but you always have to remember that the only people that get those long term average gains that we talk about are the ones that are prudent, the ones that are unemotional, the ones that take advantage of opportunities like this stay the course knowing that they’re in an A, uh, portfolio that’s built for this. I mean that’s why we build the portfolios we do, that’s why we analyze so much of the data we analyze. And right now this is just a buying opportunity. All the analytics are still showing that the trend is positive and until that change changes we’re going to keep pushing like we are. So I hope this feels better. Um, you know, I know sometimes it’s just about getting out there talking about it. I’m pretty excited to be at a financial advisor conference because I’ll be with a bunch of other advisors and we’ll be talking about what’s going on right now, probably talking about our clients emotions and how they’re handling it. Um, but I’m not worried at all. I look at this as a nice buying opportunity. I still think 2025 is going to be a positive year. And as a matter of fact I think this presented a lot of great buys where I’m hoping with some of our reallocating that we’re able to take advantage of it. And as big tech and some of these other companies take back off again we’re going to lock in some of those good gains. So be patient, be unemotional and just know that this is normal. And uh, yes, I’m very, very aware and you are my clients and if you want to sit down and you want to have a private conversation or discuss this, that’s why I’m here. Uh, you know, no different than on a flight if you’re flying anywhere. And I like to relate a lot of this stuff to either sports or flying because I think it’s, you’re able to relate a lot more. And I’m going to do a whole piece on that I think where I’m uh, talking about how we can relate market conditions to sports or to flying.

Stay focused. Stay unemotional. Everything will be okay. Your portfolio is built to withhold this. And trust me, this is nothing but

And I like to think about this is if we go fly, obviously we’re going to do a flight plan that’s going to try to avoid weather as much as possible. I mean that’s only prudent, right? But if we get a little bit of turbulence, we don’t just eject from the airplane, we don’t just jump out, we don’t just turn around. That’s just a part of the process. It’s a part of the game. It doesn’t mean that we’re not going to land safely. It doesn’t mean that we’re not going to get through it. It’s just a part of flying. And you know, there’s clear air turbulence out there that we would never know is there. And the bumps happen. It’s a part of the game. So stay focused. Everything will be okay. Stay unemotional. Stay long term. Your portfolio is built to withhold this. And trust me, this is nothing but an opportunity. If you have cash on the sidelines or you’re not already dollar cost averaging, which I, uh, 100% think you should do all the time because it forces that discipline, reach out to me and I’ll help you get it done. Fly safe. Talk to you soon. Bye Bye.

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