Understanding Market Cycles: Investing with Patience and Faith?

Speaker A00:00:00

You ever been on a roller coaster? Now you're thinking, ralph, I tuned into a financial Christian show. What are you talking about? Roller coasters? Let's talk about that for a second.Because one thing that is certain is this. The stock market is not a sure bet. Yes, it's a roller coaster. And I got this question and I thought, this is perfect for today.I'm talking a lot about investments in this series. The listener said this. He said, ralph, every time the market drops, I panic.How am I supposed to stay calm when it feels like everything is falling apart? Kind of like on that roller coaster. I'm not a big fan of roller coasters. I get on there and I'm excited.I'm going to go up and down on this roller coaster. In my mind. I think I'm going to be okay. That pain you feel when the market crashes, that's real. And I've felt it myself many times.Because if we're going to be intellectually honest with each other, markets go up and markets go down and it's so easy to think, oh, this is a sign of doom, things are going to never recover. We need to realize something. It's just a cycle. And that's not really the question for today. The question isn't will the markets go up and down?We already know that's going to happen. That roller coaster is going to go up and down. It's going to do all kinds of grooves and valleys.Hey, there's even one near me that goes completely upside down. I'm not getting on that one. But the real question is how do we respond when that happens.So today I'm going to help you respond and not panic and definitely not overreact. That's what we're going to cover on today's show.This is Financially Confident Christian, your daily dose of gospel, grounded insight and faith driven tips to help you break the cycle of financial shame with confidence. Hey there. Thank you for joining me today. I'm Ralph. I'm your guide on this journey to really improve your financials and do it in a Christian way.And I truly appreciate the trust you place in me every day. And the truth is, today's topic affects all of us.No one's immune from this because as I said before, it's a certainty we're going to have market cycles. And over 30 years of my career, I say that sometimes it makes me feel really old. But for 30 years I have seen all kinds of market madness.I've seen highs that were you never thought, this is never Going to get this high again. Unfortunately, I've seen those lows that made people really worry about what their future looks like.And during all that, one of the things I learned is the fruit of staying steady. That's something I really talk about today. Investing with patience through the ups and the downs. I want to take you back to 2008.I was about 10 years or 15 years into my business, and the financial crisis was right in front of us. And I had people calling me every day. Now, I'm not a broker. I don't give financial advice. I don't make those investment decisions. But.But people rely on me. We've built relationships. And I had so many clients that would call me and they're ready to cash out. I'll never forget this one particular woman.She called me and she said, ralph, I'm done. This madness in this market has me scared to death. I'm taking all my money out and I'm going to put it in the mattress.And I said to her, listen, that's not a really good plan. I said, yes, it's scary right now. The market is all over the place. We're not sure what's going to happen. But she listened to me. I was so thankful.She called me. We had a conversation. She came in and sat down. We had a discussion about this. And I said, list, you've got a pretty big time horizon.At the time, I think she was in her early 30s. She had time for the market to recover. And she said, okay, Ralph, I want to take your trust. I said, don't put your trust in me. Wait a second, I said.And she was a person of faith. I said, pray about this and really ask God, what does he want you to do in this case? And she says, okay, I'm going to pray about it.Well, she decided to stay in the market. And the truth is, a few years later, she recovered from that. And she actually grew stronger than ever. See, she believed in what God had told her.He was going to be that provision for it. I love what Warren Buffett said. Warren Buffett's a pretty, you know, fancy pants investment guy.If you don't know Warren Buffett, he's a pretty smart guy. And he said this. He said, the stock market is designed to transfer money from the impatient to the patient.And I thought, wow, that's a really good way to say it. And I agree with him 100%. Think about what he said. I'm going to read that again because it's so impactful.The, the stock market Those ebbs and flows, those valleys, that roller coaster ride. It's designed to transfer money for those people who are impatient. Those people are going to go, I'm out of this market.Like my clients said, Ralph, I'm getting out of this. I can't take it anymore. It's designed to transfer that to the people who are patient.So we have to ask ourselves this really difficult question right now. How do we keep from panicking during those cycles? Because you're a human being, you have feelings. Listen, I've been there.I remember in 2008, wasn't too far into being in my own practice. I've been starting to put some money away for retirement. And I got these investment statements. I'm like, I'm losing like crazy.My wife and I are sitting there, we're praying about it, we're saying, what should we do? And God just said, stay the course, Ralph. I got this. So here's the thing. I want you to understand my main points for today.Market cycles, starting user. This is what we do. This is the heartbeat of investing.When you get on that roller coaster, a lot of times you're taking that ride up and you hear that click, click, click, click. And you're just going up and up and up, and you get to the top and you're thinking, oh, guess what's coming? Guess what's going. Yep.And then it happens, down you go. And we've got to accept that the market works the same way. There are going to be fluctuations in the market.But here's what I want to give you, a little reassurance.Now, listen, this might be broker talk a little bit, because I remember when I was younger, my broker would always say this to me, say, ralph, don't worry about it. Over time it always improves. But when you look back and you're honest about it, you look back, every single dip has eventually turned into growth.It just has. Now we could say, well, the market corrects itself. I actually believe it's bigger than that.I think Christ himself is stepping in and he's showing us, you can have faith in me. I got provision for you. This isn't a time to panic. Because here's the problem.When you panic and a lot of people do this, it leads to making bad decisions. That client that came in, she was going to sell at a bad time. The market was really taking a hit.Well, if she had done that, she'd been making a really bad decision. But she hung in there. Yes. Did she lose some money? In the short term, absolutely. But it was that patience that led to growth.So there's so much that it says, oh, get out of the market. But you get more value by staying in the market. Because here's the way it works. It allows that compound.We talked about compounding the other day in the show how just a little bit can grow. Well, if you take your money off, it's kind of like when you're a kid. You get in a fight on the, on the playground field.You take your ball and you go home. That's what you do when you leave the market. There's a lot of fun to be had on the playground still. You got to keep that ball in there.You got to keep playing. And as a believer, I think this is even a bigger thing. As a believer, we've got to really examine our own belief system.See, peace doesn't come from the markets.If you think you're going to find peace there, I'm going to tell you right now, you're never going to find peace in that because God doesn't want you to find peace in that. God wants you to find peace in his provision. So as a believer, we need to see this differently. We don't just live in this world.We don't go as the world says.I do a show called Truth Unveiled with Ralph where every Sunday I try to break down that culture versus scripture, and I'm gonna encourage you to check it out. You can see that@truthunveilwithralph.com another great show. It's once a week on Sundays, but check it out. But we have to really understand it.We can live in this world. We don't want to live as the world. We gotta trust God in this provision and we gotta trust him with patience.Another thing, and this might step on a little toes. You got to stop looking for those big wins. So many people. Oh, this is a sure thing, Ralph. I'm going to do this because it's going to be a big win.Well, maybe you need to check your heart there because are you putting yourself in a position where you're going to have that big loss? Here's the thing about that roller coaster analogy. As you're climbing that hill, as that hill gets taller and taller and taller, guess what's coming.It might be a big win, but that big fall is coming. Let's get right into the Bible. I love this from the Book of James, chapter one, verses three and four. I love what it says.It says because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let Perseverance finish its work in your favor. What a reassuring piece of scripture, perseverance. It mentions it twice here in this one verse.See, as a believer, we need to understand something at the very core. Peace doesn't come from the markets. Peace doesn't come from what's in your bank account. Peace doesn't come from what's in your investment accounts.Peace doesn't come in how many cars, houses, whatever those things are. It doesn't come into beautiful vacations. It comes from knowing Christ. It comes from trusting in God and his provision for us. What a promise, right?How reassuring is that? And I had to give us a second verse today. I don't always do two, but I found this one. I thought, this is perfect. It's all about seasons.You probably heard this verse many times. You didn't, maybe didn't even know where it came from. It's Ecclesiastes, chapter three, verse one. And I love this one.There's a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens. Cycles are a season. They're a time of testing. They're a time of testing our faith. So let me ask you right now, has your faith ever been tested?That might be what you're in right now. When your faith's being tested, what's the best way to handle it? You pray. So let's pray together right now.Lord, we just thank you for this provision you give us, Lord, and for the faith and the seasons of faith that you bring into our lives, Lord. And during these times of the fear and panic, Lord, give us patience. And when that financial anxiety arises, Lord, be there for us.Put your arm around us, Lord, and we'll know that it's your will for us to get through this cycle, Lord. Give us wisdom to trust long term over those short term fears, Lord, and help us to break these cycles, these market cycles that scare us so much.Help us to overcome that fear, Lord. And we just thank you for this steady provision.Through all the seasons of our life, through all those storms that come our way, Lord, we just ask this in confidence. In the name of Jesus, Amen. Well, today's action is this. I want you to just take a simple minute. I want you to write down this phrase. You ready?This is what I want you to write down. Downturns are temporary. My plan is long term. I'm going to give it to you again because I want you to write this down.Put it on a sticky note, put it on your phone, put it wherever you keep that investment account where you Keep your bank account, whatever that is, just write this down. Downturns are temporary. My plan is long term because that can act as a reminder before you. It can become your mantra. It's your go to belief.They talk about writing a scripture on your heart. I'm gonna encourage you to do that right now. Think long term. As a Christian, we think long term, right?We're gonna get to that point of death and we hope to hear these words, well done, good and faithful servant. What does that mean? It means being consistent. It means being diligent. And the truth is, like I said earlier, markets move in cycles.You can't fear those dips. It's time to break that cycle of fear. Find that wisdom, find that patience. And as I said, remember, recovery always has followed those downturns.But here's the thing you have never had to worry about. You're never going to lose. Have a downturn in God's provision. It's steady. Even when the markets are shaky, God's provision is steady.He's our rock during the storms and he's our rock during the times of distress. So I'm going to encourage you right now, put your faith in him today. Now tomorrow I'm going to talk about investment scams.A lot of people have been scammed. Tomorrow we're going to dig in deep. We're going to talk about how to spot those red flags.Because one thing that makes me angry is all get out is when I see people taken advantage of. So tomorrow on the show, I'm going to tell you how to avoid those things. Because listen, it's not my first rodeo. I've seen some crazy ones.And today I want to encourage you to do one more thing for me. One of the ways that we grow this show is when you share it with other people.There are so many people out there right now who are dealing with these type of situations where they're living in panic, they're living in fear, they're not sure what's going on in the world. We live in a crazy times right now. We see all kinds of crazy things going around us. But you can share the show with them.Just point them right to our website. That's financiallyconfidentchristian.com show them a better way. Show them the Christian way. Because guess what?You're an ambassador for Christ and as an ambassador, you should show them a better way. So I encourage you to do that. Send them to financiallyconfidentchristian.com and I just want to encourage you right now, you can do this.You don't have to live in fear anymore. God hears your prayers. Just reach out to the Father and he'll sweep you up and he'll put his arms around you. Stay financially savvy. God bless you.Today. You have a great day.