Keeping Perspective During Market Pullbacks
By: Michael J. Boosel, CFP® Managing Director, Senior Investment Consultant

Periods like this can feel uncomfortable.  The news is busy, markets have pulled back from recent highs, and it’s natural to wonder whether something more serious is unfolding.  When this happens, it’s often helpful to step back and look at the data—and the history behind it.

So far in 2026, the S&P 500 Index is down approximately 6%–7% year‑to‑date (as of this writing).  From its recent all‑time high in late January, the index is currently about 9%–9.2% below its peak.  While declines like this can feel unsettling in real time, they are actually quite normal.

To put this in perspective, over the past 20 years, the S&P 500 has experienced frequent pullbacks of 5% to 10% (often multiple times in a single year).  In fact, history shows that the average intra‑year pullback for the market has been roughly 14%, even in years that ultimately finished with positive returns.  More than three‑quarters of calendar years since 2000 have experienced a meaningful pullback at some point along the way.

Looking back, investors have lived through far more significant declines:

• The Global Financial Crisis (2008) saw the market fall by more than 50% before recovering
• The COVID‑19 shock (2020) resulted in a roughly 34% decline in just over a month—followed by a strong recovery
• The 2022 bear market brought a decline of about 25% before markets stabilized and moved higher again

Compared to those episodes, today’s pullback remains well within the range of a normal market fluctuation.

This is exactly why long‑term financial plans are built with volatility in mind.  Market declines are not an unexpected event—they are a feature of investing.  The key is perspective. Short‑term market movements may feel urgent, but long‑term progress is made by staying patient and consistent.  Markets have rewarded disciplined investors over time, not because the path is smooth, but because they remained committed when it wasn’t.

For investors who are still accumulating assets, periods like this can be very beneficial, allowing ongoing contributions and reinvestment at lower prices. For those drawing income, well‑designed financial plans include appropriate cash reserves and diversification to help avoid reactive decisions during market stress.

While markets rarely feel comfortable during pullbacks, history consistently shows that patience and discipline have been rewarded over time.  Staying focused on long‑term goals—rather than short‑term headlines—has been one of the most reliable ways investors have navigated uncertainty and built lasting wealth.

As always, we will continue to monitor markets closely, but our decisions remain grounded in long‑term planning, diversification, and your individual goals—not day‑to‑day market movements. 

Our team is always here to guide you through these frequent, sometimes scary, but always temporary declines with our disciplined and time-tested planning and investment process!

Client's Corner by Nick Murray

IN THE FIRST SEVENTY DAYS OF THIS YEAR, THERE occurred—in no particular order—the following:

• The U.S. military extracted the President of Venezuela from his palace; he is currently being held in Brooklyn.
  
  
• The President of the United States broached, with apparent seriousness, the possibility of acquiring Greenland.
  
  
• The Supreme Court struck down the administration’s IEEPA tariffs.
  
  
• The price of Bitcoin completed the process, begun the previous autumn, of halving.
  
  
• The first primary contests in what will be the midterm elections kicked off, possibly signaling a change in control of one or both houses of Congress in November.
  
  
• There was a well-nigh tectonic rotation in the stock market from growth to value, as AI morphed in the mind of the market from technological miracle to Frankenstein’s monster.
  
  
• Federal agents shot to death two protesters in Minneapolis under bitterly disputed circumstances.
  
  
• A research paper from a hitherto little-known source posited a scenario in which unemployment might rise to 10% and the stock market decline nearly 40% by 2028. That the writer was not actually predicting this outcome was a distinction totally lost on the stock market, which experienced a brief but total moment of existential panic.
  
  
• The price of silver went parabolic, culminating in a one-day 31% decline—the largest since March 27, 1980, the day the Hunt brothers’ attempt to corner the silver market collapsed.
  
  
• The United States and Israel decapitated the leadership of Iran, effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz and causing oil prices to spike; said spike is ongoing at this writing, with—as financial journalism loves to cry—“no end in sight.”
  
  
• In February, the U.S. economy shed 92,000 jobs, a somewhat ominous development that had been forecast by precisely nobody. (The consensus forecast had been a gain of 55,000 jobs.

There was some other stuff—the above is a curated rather than an encyclopedic list—but you get the point. Which is simply that we find ourselves in a moment of near-perfect economic, financial, political and geopolitical chaos. It’s a Jackson Pollock splatter painting.....

(click here to view the article).

Building a Flexible Retirement Income Strategy

In March's Wealth Strategies webinar, our planning experts walked through how a flexible, well-coordinated retirement income strategy can help you confidently navigate life after your working years. 

What You Need to Know:

• Your Retirement Income Sources Will Look Different Than Anyone Else's. No one has the same mix of income sources, expenses, or goals – meaning your plan should be tailored to what you want your next chapter to look like. 
  
  
• Taxes Play a Critical Role in How You Generate Income. Understanding how each income source, from pensions to IRAs, fits together is essential to creating the most flexible and tax-efficient "retirement paycheck". 
  
  
• Social Security Can Meaningfully Affect Your Long-Term Confidence. Social Security serves as the foundation of most retirement income plans. Claiming ages, spousal strategies, and earning limits before full retirement age all influence what you receive. 

(click here to view the recording).

Odds & Ends

• In this piece, Hartford Funds highlights an important lesson from recent market volatility. Click here to read 2025 Illustrates Why Market Timing Is Impossible.

• AI has been around for years - but now it's taken over the conversation. Between market swings and headline-heavy predictions about jobs and disruption, people who weren't paying attention before suddenly are. In this month's All That Matters, Mike and Ross, dig into the power of narrative and what's actually worth focusing on. Click here to view the discussion.

The Boosel Ringwala Group at Baird

555 North Point Center E, Suite 500

Alpharetta, GA 30022

(678) 762-3000

WWW.TBRGBAIRD.COM