Take Your Time

While browsing through the news earlier this week, I got to thinking about how small things can seem to have big results. This can even be a little mind-bending because sometimes we can’t help but wonder just how much Cracker Barrel changing its logo can have an impact on its stock price. (Or how much changing it back can fix anything.) How this will shake out long term still needs time to fully determine, but I must imagine earnings will eventually have a larger impact.

But then that thought shifted me to wondering how much these changes may be most affected by the timeframes through which you look at them.

And sure, for those who are active players in the stock market and are tracking prices throughout the day, these Cracker Barrel moves could have been something to be on top of. For those who are more long-term investors, though, it could also turn out to be much ado about nothing before too long.

So let this be a little reminder to remain measured when receiving news. A headline is crafted to get your attention. It is trying to get you to watch a video for 30 seconds or record your click before you read the top two paragraphs, when if we take the time to get deeper into a story, the more we can realize that things aren’t as shocking as were made to believe.

For instance, depending on where you received the news, you could have viewed tariffs passed by President Trump as immediate harbingers of inflation spikes. But now “sneakflation” is emerging as a term in many stories because the tariffs certainly are having some effects, but they’re not as bad as some feared. After all, if something is sneaking past your notice, it is on a lower level pretty much by definition.

And now there are some indications that The Fed may be ready to lower interest rates soon, which is also bound to be seen a large thing. But just how much this is going to affect people personally could be slight. (I recommend this article from CNN that goes into the changes one can expect to see.) The changes are really going to be more long-term than immediately felt – for a mental exercise, think of how a slightly lower interest rate on a loan can add up over five years, but from month to month the change may be minimal.

So let this be a little reminder to be mindful of the financial choices you make. Immediate changes are much rarer and tougher to navigate than long-range planning. This doesn’t mean it’s impossible to see such things happen, but it is important to make sure that how you feel and react to things reflects the types of actions you are willing to take and aren’t knee-jerk reactions to one thing you read in one place.

Warmly,

Josh Bousquet
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