After several years of record high after record high, many Mississippians are expressing concern with the recent volatility in the New York Stock Exchange. But experts say there is no reason to worry yet.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average has dropped nearly two thousand points over the last week due to concerns and uncertainty in the Chinese Economy.
That downturn has left many people in Mississippi and around the nation feeling anxious. Dan Smith is from North Mississippi, and holds stock in his retirement account. He’s worried, but he’s remaining optimistic.
“Yeah, I’m worried about it, “ says Smith. “There’s not a whole lot you can do with the losses other then lay with it you can’t give up. If you’ve got your investment in there, you can pull out while it’s down.”
Despite that anxiety, financial experts believe the change in the market will have little impact on the average American. Many point to historic swings, where the market corrected itself and rose just as abruptly as it fell. Others say the International problems plaguing the market have very little impact on the U-S economy as a whole.
Nancy Lottridge-Anderson is a professor of finance at Mississippi College and founder of New Perspectives Financial Solutions. She says people need to leave their money alone for the time being.
“We believe in a very short period of time we will be past this and come back and look at your asset allocation. Before this happened, I really had to struggle to get people to leave pieces in bonds or fixed income or cash. They would say ‘It’s not growing. I don’t like it. I want to be on the stock side.’ And I would say to them you’re going to like this one day, and that day was yesterday.
According to the Federal Reserve, only about 18 percent of American households own stock or mutual funds.
