Money Mom Podcast
Welcome to The Money Mom Podcast—the ultimate guide for moms who want to take control of their finances, crush debt, and create a life of financial freedom and abundance. Hosted by Rachel Coons, a budgeting expert and mom of three, this podcast is your go-to resource for practical tips, mindset shifts, and empowering strategies to help you manage your money with confidence.
Whether you’re navigating grocery budgets, tackling debt, or dreaming of building wealth for your family, each episode offers bite-sized, actionable advice to make money management simple, stress-free, and even enjoyable. With relatable stories, expert insights, and a dose of mom-to-mom encouragement, you'll learn how to transform your finances—one small step at a time.
Tune in every week to discover how to save more, spend smarter, and feel empowered to create the financial life you deserve. Because when moms thrive financially, families flourish.
Money Mom Podcast
50: Navigating Market Uncertainty: How To Thrive Amidst Potential Chaos
The recent market volatility has many investors feeling anxious as major indices have dropped by 14%. But what if I told you that market downturns actually create some of the best wealth-building opportunities?
When markets tumble, our emotions tempt us to make destructive financial moves. Panic selling locks in losses. Trying to time market bottoms proves futile even for experts. Halting investments means missing chances to buy assets at discount prices. These emotional reactions undermine wealth creation far more than market fluctuations themselves.
Remember that market volatility is not just normal – it's necessary for creating the long-term returns that build wealth. By focusing on what you can control and maintaining perspective, you can transform these uncertain periods from times of anxiety into opportunities for financial growth.
xoxo,
Rachel
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Hey there and welcome to the Money Mom podcast. I'm your host, rachel Koons, and today our episode is timely for what is happening right now in our world. We have a podcast schedule of what episodes are going to come out which week and, with what has recently happened in the market, I decided to switch up our schedule a little bit so I could fit this particular episode in right now, because it is pertinent to what's happening with the recent fluctuations of the stock market and the market causing some anxiety and confusion happening and, more importantly, how you can successfully navigate these choppy seas in this choppy time, because it can breed a lot of chaos and we don't want chaos and I want to make it really simple for you and give you strategies to help you feel better and not feel like you're losing thousands of dollars, and that you're also knowledgeable about what's going on. So, whether you're a seasoned investor or you're just starting out, this episode, hopefully, will equip you with some of the knowledge and strategies not only to just survive but to thrive during market downturns. So last month it's actually really funny Last month in the Money Mom Club, we talked about investing, how to set up investment accounts and how to automate your investments and how to get the most out of your investments so that you can build long-term wealth. And then this month, for March, we're talking about money mindset and I literally feel like this was the universe saying okay, you're going to learn how to go from a scarcity mindset to an abundance mindset and stop feeling stressed about money. That literally happened during a market downturn. We've had a little bit of a downturn in the market. We've lost like 10 to 15 percent of the market in the past month. So I just feel like it's a funny little lesson that we're learning, that you know, even during financial downturns, we can sink into that abundance mindset and not get stressed and overwhelmed with money, and this is a really good opportunity to do that. So, as of March 17th this is the day I'm recording this, st Patrick's Day. This episode will come out next Monday.
Speaker 1:The stock market has experienced over the past week or two, some notable volatility, and you may have seen this in headlines, social media, news outlets. People are talking about this significant decline that's happened over the past couple weeks. So the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ indexes are down over 14%. Several reasons have fueled this recent turbulence and I am not going to go into anything political. I don't want to touch that with a 10-foot pole, and I believe that it doesn't matter where you sit on the aisle of conservative or liberal, whatever it is, whether you support the administration or you don't support it. That's not what this episode is about.
Speaker 1:And what this is about is what's happening in the markets and why that's happening. So there's trade tensions right, we've talked about raising tariffs with Mexico and Canada and that can breed a downturn in the market Mexico and Canada and that can breed a downturn in the market. There's also talk of a reset or a recession right, where the market resets itself. It's going to drop a little bit before it gets better, and that is completely normal. When we look at the market over a 30, 40 year period, we see downturns in the market. It's not abnormal. What is happening right now. There's also fluctuation in the commodity prices, and all of those factors there's a lot of different factors will contribute to investor uncertainty and that leads to market swings. That leads to the market going down or potentially the market going up, and so there are psychological impacts when the market changes, and so when a market does what it's done recently and it starts to downturn.
Speaker 1:That will trigger emotional reactions in buyers and sellers. It creates fear, it creates anxiety and it creates this feeling of scarcity. When you literally open up your investment account and you see that you lost, that doesn't feel good. That's not a good feeling. We don't want to see that happen with our investments. So I just want to say it's totally natural to feel concerned when you are witnessing your portfolio start to decline. That is normal. There's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 1:But we're not leading with emotion in this. We're not looking at investments with emotion. We are not trying to time the market or get out of the market at a certain time based off of emotions. We don't make investment decisions based on emotions. That is going to be the worst thing, the most detrimental thing to the long-term financial health of your investments. If we're letting those emotions get to us, then we can make really bad mistakes, including selling when the market's down, trying to get out of the market in general because we're worried that it's just going to continue crashing, and then also, on the flip side of that, attempting to time the markets.
Speaker 1:And when you feel that emotion, you deviate from your established investment plans, you change your automatic payments, or you miss a payment or you throw more money into it, sticking to what you've been doing over the past couple years. If it's been automated and what you're comfortable with and how it's been working in the past, continue to do it. Don't change your investment plans just because the market takes a dip, because actions like that will, over time, breed more losses than they will, and we want to be able to recover from this. The truth is, the stock market over time does well. Over time it trends upward. So if we scroll out, when we look at the stock market for 30 years at a time, it has trended upward. But if you scroll in and you just look at the past three months or you look at a three-month period, at any point of the stock market, you are going to see downward trends in that short amount of time, which is why, when we invest, we are not investing for short-term gains, we're not picking individual stocks to invest in. We are setting our money into our investments and we're forgetting about it and we're letting it sit for as long as possible. That is the true successful investment plan.
Speaker 1:History has shown that markets recover over time. So I just want to give you that peace of mind. They will recover, no matter how low they go, because we have no idea what the future holds. Nobody can tell you and if they are trying to tell you, they are lying to you. Nobody can tell you what's going to happen in the future. So we have to maintain a long-term perspective by sticking to the investment plan and sticking to our actions that we've been doing even during downturns. So here's what you should not do right now, during a downturn.
Speaker 1:One of the biggest mistakes I see is when people sell off when the market is down, because they think it's going to continue to go down, so they sell their investments. Do not do that. Do not panic sell, because if you are purchasing and selling for a lower price, you then have locked in that loss and you will miss the recovery when the prices go back up. My dad used to always say you don't lose money on an investment until you sell. So even if your bank accounts show that you've lost money over time, it's not really a loss because you're not selling it. It only becomes a loss when you sell that market share.
Speaker 1:Another thing to not do is do not stop investing completely. It might feel like now is a bad time to invest. That's your emotions telling you that we don't want to listen to our emotions. This is actually a smart time when investors keep buying. More millionaires were made during the 2008 stock market crash and recession than any other time before. Same thing happened when the market went down in 2020 and 2021. People come out millionaires from that because they're purchasing stocks and funds. When they are on sale, they now are cheaper than they have been in a while, so you're getting more bang for your buck when you invest right now. So don't be afraid to continue your investments.
Speaker 1:Don't stop investing completely and then do not try to time the market. No one can predict when the bottom of the market is not even the experts. So the best strategy for you is to be consistent over time. Stay the course, Keep investing, review your goals and make sure that your automatic payments and investments are set up so that they're dollar cost averaging over time. Payments and investments are set up so that they're dollar cost averaging over time. When we invest a fixed amount regularly, regardless of market conditions, it lowers the average cost per share over time and it reduces your risk of volatility. If you've never heard of dollar cost averaging, that basically means just consistent investments over time. It doesn't matter where the market is at. You just put money into the market. That's called dollar cost averaging.
Speaker 1:You do not need a financial advisor to tell you what to do. This is a very normal thing. That's happening in the markets. It is expected in the market. It is not a time to freak out. It is not a time to throw all of what you've learned about investing out the window. It is the time to lean in and really stick to the plan. Stick to the plan.
Speaker 1:Don't let yourself get wrapped up in the headlines and the fear that is going around. You guys all know who Warren Buffett is. He's one of the most famously wealthy men in the world and he said be fearful when others are greedy and be greedy when others are fearful. Right now, there's a lot of fear. There's a lot of fear in the market and that tends to make people pull out of the market because they're thinking with emotion.
Speaker 1:So this is the perfect time to purchase, to be patient, to use strategy and emotional discipline so that you can get more bang for your buck. Something that can help you have that emotional discipline is not to get wrapped up in it. Don't even check your accounts. Don't even open up your investment portfolio when a market goes down. I don't care how much money I've lost, because I'm not going to sell it. All I care about is in 30 years, when we plan to use that money, it will have grown over the past 30 years. So don't check your accounts every day. That's not going to breed safety. That's not going to breed abundance. That's only going to make you more stressed when you see how much money you've lost. There's no need for that, especially if you're not going to use the money.
Speaker 1:This is a perfect time and one of the reasons having an emergency fund is so important three to six months of living expenses in a high-yield savings account or something that you can access so that you don't have to sell your stocks at a loss. We want to be able to have that nest egg when things get a little bit uncertain. You know there's talks of job layoffs and the market going down and inflation going up. Those things are beyond our control. We cannot control what happens to the financial atmosphere of our world, but what we can control is keeping ourselves safe in our own financial situation and making sure that, if things happen, we are set up for success so we don't have to sell our stuff at a loss.
Speaker 1:Understanding your money situation and your financial well-being will turn these periods of uncertainty, where people are freaking out, into where you don't have to worry about it. You're set up for success. You know that. You're in control, nobody else is, and it's going to be okay. You need to stay informed, you need to know what's going on, but you don't have to get emotionally wrapped up in it. So stay calm and focus on your long-term financial goals.
Speaker 1:I'm here to tell you that, no matter what happens in the coming months we don't know what's going to happen Maybe the market's going to go back up, maybe it's going to go down even more. I'm not stressed about it because I've set myself and my investments up for long term. I'm not worried about what happens in the next year of the market. What I'm worried about is that I am secure in my finances. I'm not overspending than what I make. I have my automatic investment set up, so we're continuing to invest and we're in this for the long haul.
Speaker 1:It's not a stressful time and that is going to help you. When you've set up and created a financial plan that is built in security, you don't have to get wrapped up in fear. So hopefully I gave you some things you can do today. When you start to see if this is in the future and you see a market downturn or it's currently worse than it was a week ago, that's okay. We can set ourselves up for safety and peace and hopefully you felt that from this episode and you leave here feeling better than you did when you pushed play at the beginning. Okay, sounds good. Stay resilient and happy investing. I'll see you next week.
