March 9th will always be a day I remember for two reasons, separated by twelve years, and totally unrelated: one in 2009 and one in 1997.
The first, March 9th, 2009 is widely accepted as the bottom of the Financial Crisis, the Great Recession, or whatever you’d like to call it. (J.C. Parets over at All Star Charts points out that the 9th was the bottom for the S&P 500, but not all stocks. He’s correct, but nonetheless, the 9th is remembered as the bottom.) To date, this was the most trying time of my career. I had been in the business for about 4 years when the Financial Crisis started, and for the most part, those 4 years were relatively easy when it came to investments; the markets just went up. All of sudden things hit the fan, and my beliefs in financial planning and investing were tested. I stayed true to my core beliefs, and did my best to address my clients’ concerns and keep them focused on their long term plan. I’m not going to lie, you can only tell clients to stick with the plan and that the losses are “only on paper” for so long before you begin to question it yourself. Thankfully, March came in and the market bottomed, although it wasn’t obvious at the time (it never is). Sidenote: I’ll never forget the late Mark Haines calling the bottom on March 10th, 2009…just one day after the actual bottom. It was pretty cool to look back and see his very humble prediction come to fruition. Since March 9th, 2009, the markets have recovered and we’ve experienced one of the strongest, yet most hated bull markets in history.
March 9th, 1997 was the day Christopher Wallace, aka The Notorious B.I.G., passed away. I have been, and always will be, a huge hip-hop fan. At the time, Biggie and 2Pac dominated the headlines with their east coast-west coast beef, which unfortunately ended up claiming both of their lives. If I had to pick one, and only one, Pac would be my choice. But, Biggie is still one of my favorite rappers; I still listen to his albums today. The song that influenced the name of my blog even featured B.I.G. His verse on Puff Daddy’s “All About The Benjamins” is one of my all-time favorite verses. I’m not sure why because it’s not even close to one of his best verses, but I’ll never forget the first time I heard the beat change and B.I.G. come in…it was awesome!
Have a listen:
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