A Stock-Market Teaching Moment

The past two months provided a rare stock-market round trip covering quite a distance in percentage terms, with 9.6% losses in December followed by 8.6% returns in January. If you were among those who sold, the reason was likely the perception that stocks were weakening since October, along with perpetual reminders that the bull market was long in the tooth. But this rationale isn’t relevant to the personal financial plan you should be following, which depends on your age, resources and goals.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices