FINANCE
according to data from research platform
Macrotrends.
But if the stock market isn’t growing,
nothing else is likely to do better,
says Ben Carlston, assistant professor
of finance at University of the Pacific’s
Eberhardt School of Business. When
you’re 30 or 35, he says regular investing
in stocks and bonds through
dollar-cost averaging is still the best
vehicle for growing money long term.
As a 37-year-old, that’s advice he practices
himself, he says.
For those who can afford it, Hanson
recommends diversification, and
not just within the market; he owns
publicly traded stocks and residential
and commercial real estate. He also
says this spring’s huge federal bailouts
mean taxes will have to rise, making
tax diversification important too. “Have
some money in tax-deferred retirement
accounts, some money in a Roth (IRA),
perhaps some in real estate because of
the tax benefits,” he says.
Ultimately, no one strategy fits
everyone. “I’ve got to sit down and learn
about the person,” says Thelen. “To
pretend there’s one answer for every
business owner, that’s false.”
More than the numbers
For many young adults, there’s another
kind of investing that matters: building
and maintaining great business connections.
For Sarah Pollo Moo, 36, owner of
public relations firm Pollo Communications
in Sacramento, it’s buying from
local businesses — she’s keeping her
online ordering local and re-upping her
local professional association memberships.
“A lot of us have PR contracts with
(local businesses),” she says. “A lot of my
peers are trying to put money back into
their local community so that they can
continue to have business afterward.”
Others are being flexible with business
agreements. Leslie Bosserman,
36, heads up Sacramento-based Lead
With Intention, which offers executive
coaching and lifestyle strategy consulting
to young leaders and their managers. She
and her husband continued to pay their
gym membership and hair salon during
the lockdown, even though both businesses
were closed. And Amber Rosen
didn’t want to be like the vacation-rental
hosts who required them to pay for reservations
they couldn’t keep after the shutdown.
She’s done the opposite, letting her
customers out of their Breakroom Fitness
contracts, though she didn’t have to.
“I feel that my business has grown
due to relationships,” she says. “My
hope is we’ll be back and running even
if it is eight, nine months down the
road. But I’m not going to sever those
key relationships.”
Steven Yoder writes about business,
real estate and criminal justice. His
work has appeared in The Fiscal Times,
Salon, The American Prospect and elsewhere.
Online at www.stevenyoder.net
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60 comstocksmag.com | July 2020