On the streets of Halifax, the feeling about the trade war and subsequent financial uncertainty is tense.
“It’s definitely concerning, doesn’t feel good that’s for sure,” says Liam Moore.
“(I’m) a little worried about it because of course the prices of everything are going to be going up. I worry about other people too that have money tied up in their stocks,” says Charmaine Gouthro.
Financial experts are hearing those concerns, too.
“I was on the phone yesterday with a client for about a half an hour, explaining to them and talking them off the ledge,” says Natasha Dowding, a financial planning advisor at Assante Wealth Management. “They wanted to sell everything and move to cash.”
But it’s important to stay the course, she says.
“We definitely advise against doing something so drastic.”
As the stock markets respond to the trade war, the fluctuation is clearly causing worry.
“The stocks that I have on the U.S. side have been generally secure,” says Cameron Evans. “I feel alright about it, but I do have more concern.”
But experts warn: we’ve been here before.
“The Great Recession, or COVID, 2022 with inflation, you know, these are all instances that felt – at the time – that they were nothing that we’ve ever seen before,” says Dowding. “But in reality, the market has seen this before.”
“You can’t react too much to threats,” says Brian Himmelman, a certified financial planner and president of Himmelman & Associates. “But at the same point in time, you can revisit your plan, your strategy.”
That means checking in and ensuring your investments can withstand the instability.
“There’s an old saying, ‘Within chaos sometimes comes opportunity.’ That could be the case with this, too,” Himmelman says.
That’s for people looking to start investing. But while the unpredictability is perhaps felt acutely among those on the cusp of retirement, the advice from Dowding is to stay the course.
“The market will be volatile and there will definitely be some downward movement, but we tend to see this turnaround,” she says.
