It seems that everyone time we turn on the news we hear or read about more violent crime. The country just seems to be coming apart. This is one of the major issues that both presidential candidates are focusing on. The reality is that violent crime continues to dramatically drop in the United States – not increase! Our perception is being impacted by the news media focusing more on crime, and in a more dramatic way. This often creates the perception that we are living in a war zone. The reality is that According to the FBI 1 violent crime has decreased dramatically over the last twenty years!
There were 23,326 murders in the United States in 1994 and 14,196 in 2013. Not only did the number of murders drop by more than 40% – at the same time the US population grew from 260,327,021 in 1994 to 316,128,839 so not only did the number of murders drop the rate dropped from 9 per 1,000 people to 4.5 per 1,000.2 Moreover, we do not hear about all of the good things that law enforcement is doing.
Similarly on June 28th immediately after the so called Brexit vote, the headline was “World markets lost $3 trillion in the two days of trading following the United Kingdom’s Brexit vote.”2. What we did not hear was that the markets increased by more than $3 trillion in the weeks following. In fact In the two weeks following the Brexit vote the major market indices moved up more than 7% and set several record highs over the next few weeks.
It’s critical to understand that the media will focus on the negative and short term. With increased competition for viewers and readers the main stream media uses fear, drama and negativity to get people to tune in. A trusted advisor can help you navigate the sea of information and remain focused on your long term plan. The role of the trusted advisor is not so much to select investments but to help you develop, enact, monitor and update a plan based on your needs, goals and vision. The advisor can sort through what information is relevant to you and what is just noise. Beyond helping you develop a sound plan based on your needs a trusted advisor can help you avoid making poor decisions based on fear and emotion rather than facts.
Do we face challenges in society and with regard to investing? Absolutely. Are things as terrible as the media would have us believe – certainly not. There are tremendous potential opportunities to help build wealth and maintain our standard of living today. A trusted advisor can help you to take advantage of these while avoiding the various pitfalls that we face. Feel free to contact us without cost or obligation to discuss your personal needs and vision. Randy Carver (440) 974-0808 or randy.carver@raymondjames.com
