Give Me Some Good News
I was once on a flight from Nashville to Denver. It was a cloudy day—dark, dreary, with a little rain. As we took off, we rose into the dark clouds, blocking our view of anything above or below. Once we broke through the cloud cover, the sun almost blinded me. At that moment, I was struck that while the day was dark and depressing below the clouds, above, there were bright blue skies! The plane allowed me to change my perspective.
Pull up any news sites today, and they are awash with bad, alarming, shocking, pessimistic news, sort of like dark clouds. This has been the case for as long as I can remember, and it doesn’t look to change. This is a topic I bring up often because it is particularly pervasive in financial media. We all value our financial well-being and anything that threatens it grabs our attention. In the past 24 months, we’ve all faced inflation fears, recession worries, and stock market declines. But as I write, a recession has yet to happen, stock markets have reached new all-time highs, and inflation, as reported for January, is 3.1%, down from 9.1% in June of 2022. Why the continual dark, dreary news?
Because bad news grabs our attention more than good, it only makes sense that media outlets would lead with the worst. Good news flies under the radar so imperceptibly that we almost don’t notice it. Consider what the dividends of companies in the S&P 500 have done while the media obsessed over every imaginable worst-case scenario…The dividends paid on the S&P 500 in 2021 were $59.20, in 2022, $67.57, and in 2023, $70.91. Projections for 2024 and 2025 are $74.54 and $79.66. Assuming the projections are reasonably accurate, that’s a 35% increase in just five years. For the long-term investor, this is good news! It is a subtle reminder of why we believe quality companies should be the cornerstone of a retirement portfolio.
More broadly, we have access to more advanced medical technologies than ever before, the US is producing more Oil than any other country in the world, access to electricity worldwide continues to climb, and around the world, fewer and fewer people are living in slum conditions each year. Are there problems out there? No question. Will they all be solved? Nope. But quietly, many things are moving in a good direction; we sometimes need a different perspective to see it.
Any opinions are those of Landon Vick and not necessarily those of Raymond James Financial Services, Inc. or of Raymond James. The information contained in this presentation does not purport to be a complete description of the securities, markets, or developments referred to in this material. There is no assurance any of the trends mentioned will continue or forecasts will occur. The information has been obtained from sources considered to be reliable, but Raymond James does not guarantee that the foregoing material is accurate or complete. Any information is not a complete summary or statement of all available data necessary for making an investment decision and does not constitute a recommendation. Investing involves risk and you may incur a profit or loss regardless of the strategy selected.
The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index of 500 widely held stocks that is generally considered representative of the U.S. stock market.
Dividends are not guaranteed and must be authorized by the company’s board of directors.
