By coinnews 
00:00 Brad Smith
Stocks are rebounding today after President Trump’s tariff policies wreaked havoc across markets over the last three trading days. According to JP Morgan, the market’s best days tend to follow the worst days, with seven of the market’s 10 best days occurring within two weeks of the 10 worst days. My next guest says missing the market’s best days can dramatically reduce long-term returns. Joining me now in studio is Preston Cherry, founder of Concurrent Wealth Management and author of the book Wealth and the Key of Life. Preston, great to have you here in studio with us.
00:26 Preston Cherry
Yeah, thanks, Brad.
00:28 Brad Smith
So let’s talk about this a little bit because we always hear the old adage, time in the market versus timing the market, but timing the market also has some significant benefits. Walk us through some of your analysis that you’ve seen about missing some of those best days after the worst pullbacks that we’ve seen.
00:44 Preston Cherry
Yeah, sure. I mean, portfolios is the whole of two halves. I mean, so there’s opportunistic investing when things are going on sale. Everybody likes to go on, go shopping when you talk about clothes and everything like, right? But what about portfolio shopping? So there’s opportunistic investing that we have. PEs are down, you can buy some stuff on sale. That said, keep on dollar cost averaging. I mean, we could buy at high points, but we can also buy at low points. And so there’s the core portfolio and then there’s a satellite where we can do the opportunistic investing.
01:21 Brad Smith
I mean, there’s there’s smart buying of sales too. It’s it’s the difference between buying a shoe that’s going to go on that is on sale and it’s going to go out of style quicker versus a shoe that’s going to have some staying power that you might have some resale value on later on. Of course, that analogy aside, you think about how market participants are thinking right now and they’re thinking about tariffs. Tariffs are fueling fears of recession. How is your firm advising clients about framing a potential recession strategy here?
01:51 Preston Cherry
Well, sure. I mean, well, politics, they pander to people, Brad, but policy actually affects pockets. I mean, so no matter your political affiliation, these are real dollars, these are real people. That said, we panic at that doesn’t do any any well. But that said, if we’re talking about, well, let’s reassess, let’s make some tactical shifts in our portfolio. Let’s raise some cash. It depends on where you are in your life stage and where you are as far as time horizon is concerned. And if you look at those areas, then we can plan to help you prosper in ways that are according to your financial plan, not others.
02:41 Brad Smith
You actually have some words of wisdom passed down from your parents and you and yourself aligned with these. One of them is adjust your sales, don’t abandon the ship. What does that mean?
02:52 Preston Cherry
Give yourself room to roll and adapt as they said, my parents said. So you have to have some flexibility. I mean, we’re going to have some substitution here. 10% of the earners, high earners in this country constitute for 50% of the spending. So for those that are income challenged, it’s going to be really tough. But for those that are high earners, well, we’re going to have to see some swapping. I remember back in the day, my dad’s a good barbecuer, we used to get brisket and ribs and all that, but that was expensive. But we also swapped that out for hamburger helper at times, right? So even if those high earners are going to look at their consumer discretionary spending, travel, large purchases, second home buying, home remodels, all of that, probably need to take a pause on that and have some cash to wait the waters.
04:01 Brad Smith
Another is prioritizing earnings over extravagance. There’s been a ton of extravagance about a few trades that has transpired over a couple years now, especially thinking about the AI elements of the market here. So just break that down for us.
04:17 Preston Cherry
Right. I mean, first of all, stay employed, be gainfully employed, keep that income coming in, right? Don’t make any large decisions as I told your last guest about businesses, keep those afloat, not making any large purchases there, but take the time to invest in yourself while the markets are down because if you stay ready, don’t have to ever get ready. So when you’re investing yourself, then you can take care of opportunities when they come out of the gate when they recover.
04:51 Brad Smith
And cash is still king in a storm. This is another one of course that we’ve heard rattle throughout Wall Street and just more broadly in much of our upbringings as well. So just break this one down for us.
05:06 Preston Cherry
Well, having too much cash is a sacrifice of opportunity. So that that’s warranting panic. I mean, so if 100% of your account is in cash, well, we’re we’re not continuing to continue our dollar cost averaging strategy and all that, right? But there is time to prepare and yes, there is uncertainty in the waters and unwarranted uncertainty there with the tariff activity, but if we don’t have any signal of when that’s going to end, then have some cash on hand that way that they will help protect from the panic selling.
05:48 Brad Smith
And finally, hit a pause on lifestyle inflation. Um, you know, this one’s going to be stepping on some toes, mostly mine, but what do you mean by hitting that pause button on lifestyle inflation specifically?
06:03 Preston Cherry
Sure. I’m a big proponent of lifestyle creep. If you if your money’s good, hey, look good, play good, pay good, right? That said, when times call, you need to take a pause. Hey, keep what’s in your closet. You know, if you have a plan trip, great, don’t plan another one, right? So, enjoy yourself as far as your well-being and and your wealth is concerned, fantastic, but that’s what I’m saying, take a pause, look at it, don’t do any more extravagant things in order to break your pockets.
06:54 Brad Smith
I was just talking about that with our senior producer this morning here. Thanks so much for taking the time here with us in studio. Appreciate it. Great to see you.
07:00 Preston Cherry
Appreciate it.