You wouldn’t know it from the gloomy media coverage, but the stock market is up for the year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ( [1]DJIA) is up a little over 5 percent for the year, but its volatility has been something of a distraction.
But Suze Orman, host of CNBC’s “The Suze Orman Show,” told viewers on NBC’s November 13 “Today” that if you’re investing for retirement, a lower stock market is exactly what you want.
“If we just simply look first of all at the stock market, and I know it's been going down and down lately,” Orman said. “Why if you are investing in a 401(k) plan, you have 10, 20, 30 years until you need this money – I said this over and over again – you don't want the stock market to go up. You want the stock market to go down and down and down. If it goes down, your money that you put in every month, it buys more shares. The more shares you own, the more money you make when the market eventually turns around and goes back up.”
The “buy low, sell high” philosophy of the stock market has been overlooked by journalists who try to relate the daily value of the stock market to “Main Street.” Often, [2]the media have viewed sudden drops in the stock market as a precursor to economic problems, like the “Armageddon” CNBC’s Jim Cramer predicted earlier this year with his [3]panic-laden rant on CNBC’s August 6 “Street Signs.”
But Orman advised retirement investors to remain calm.
“So for those of you who are investing for a long term, which should be most of you, if you are investing in the market – don’t be upset about stocks,” Orman said. “As long as you're in a good quality mutual fund, good quality stock, you have diversification both here and overseas – you’re doing great.”