Russia, Ukraine, and Your Retirement

Growing up, I always had a fascination with the news industry. In fact, if I wasn’t doing what I’m doing now, I’d probably do something in some sort of media, some sort of news.

Behind the camera, in front of the camera, it didn’t matter to me. I think this is really neat, and I am what I call a news junkie.

Here in Chicago, I watch way too much news. But we all know that sometimes there’s too much. And right now there are lots of news stories going on, and a lot of it is impacting the market and the retirement world that’s going on out there.

So we are recording this on Tuesday, February 22nd – 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, and all that fun stuff. And, right now the headline is Russia and Ukraine.

We’ve had some phone calls, we’ve had some questions as to what is happening with Russia and Ukraine. “What is it doing to your retirement portfolio?”

And let me take a step backwards here and let me talk a little bit about what is going on, what we know so far.

Remember the timeliness of this, pay attention because things are changing quickly. But on Tuesday, the U.S. indicated that it would impose some sanctions on Russia alongside the EU for what’s happening inside of Ukraine.

And the markets are always volatile in response to some sort of geopolitical event.

Especially when there is a European nation like Ukraine, as well as a nuclear power like Russia, involved.

The other thing we worry about is Russia is responsible for about 10% of the world’s oil exports. And any disruptions could impact the price of oil.

And the U.S. has already said that if Russia invades Ukraine, it could do so at will. Other than going to war, which we’ve said we will not do, it’s really the only thing we could do to stop it.

But we’ve seen this before. We’ve seen things like this happen before. This is, as far as the market goes, will probably trigger emotional decisions that come into play.

But we’ve seen that things like this usually will bounce back rather quickly.

I’m actually more concerned about domestic issues such as inflation and higher interest rates on overall portfolios.

But what I always tell people is let’s take a step back from the news. If you have actually planned, like we’ve been talking about for a long time now, this shouldn’t impact your retirement.

With planning you shouldn’t see be nervous. This is just one of those things that we plan for, and as long as we’ve done it correctly, your income shouldn’t suffer.

You should be able to know that you’re going to have that income that comes in no matter what with the Russian/Ukraine thing and no matter what happens domestically.

Now if you are really nervous, if this is all of a sudden kind of getting you to tense up a little bit, maybe we’re taking too much risk. Maybe we haven’t gone through and decided where your income’s coming from.

Maybe we were too bullish talking to you. Maybe the overall euphoria of the last 12 years of a stock market bull market, unlike anything we’ve ever seen, has gotten to us.

And that’s okay. That’s natural.

But I always tell people it is always better to not make emotional knee jerk reactions. And if you can feel yourself tensing up with this one, now is a time to talk. Don’t wait, let’s talk about this.

We’re going to keep this information coming, but my tips and the ways that we’re going to get through this is a few things.

One is watch the news, be informed,but let’s take a step back and realize how things like this impact the market.

This isn’t the first time Russia’s invaded Ukraine. We’ve seen it happen before. Let’s see what happens after the fact here.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen oil prices change.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen inflation. Now it may feel like it, especially for my generation.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen the Fed start raising interest rates. We know what’s going to happen here.

And the second thing I want to say is, as long as we’ve planned for it, as long as it’s in your plan, this shouldn’t be a problem for you.

It may not be the most fun, but let’s take a step back and realize why we did what we did. And as long as you’re comfortable in that situation, this shouldn’t bother you from a financial standpoint at all.

And I do understand how it could bother you from a personal standpoint. But from a financial standpoint; from a retirement standpoint; for what’s best for your family; what’s best for your money standpoint – As long as we’ve gone through the motions and we’ve gone through the process, this planning shouldn’t matter.

As always, if you have questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We’d be happy to sit down and talk to anybody about what’s going on and how it may impact your situation.

If you’d like to read more from our back room, from our Chief Investment Officer, in the comments below there is a link to a handout of the Weekly Market Minute that was written about what’s kind of happening right now.

Remember that this is timely to today and as things change and progress, we’ll try and keep you updated there.

If you are not sure how this is going to impact you, or if you haven’t planned, if you haven’t worked with us in the past and you think now is the time that we should put something into place so that you don’t have to worry about things like that in the future, feel free to reach out to us here.

We’ll get back to you and we can have a very quick phone call to see what we can do to make you more comfortable as we move forward, with what’s probably going to be some volatile times here.

As I mentioned in the video, you can download the Weekly Market Commentary written by our Chief Financial Officer by clicking the button below.