If you’re like most Americans, by the time you enter your early 50s you’ll probably have held about a dozen different jobs at nearly as many different employers. ¹It’s a far cry from the 1940s and 1950s, when working your entire life for the same employer was a fairly commonplace occurrence. Today, workers are far more mobile, job skills are far more translatable, and employers tend to be considerably less likely to carry excess labor costs through any sort of prolonged economic downturn

After a multi-year period of relatively low volatility, U.S. equity markets recently experienced a spate of heightened volatility. In part, this volatility was brought on by worrisome economic data from China suggesting even slower economic growth may be coming and by growing concerns over the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy and when interest rates will begin to rise. As you would expect, higher equity market volatility often causes angst and concern amongst investors. Sometimes, individual investors are tempted to “sell everything” and exit equity markets until the volatility subsides and it appears “safe” to return to equities.