Personal message from CEO Tom: 'Keep your eye on the long term'

Dear Peaker,

Yesterday, the American stock market plunged nearly 5%. My message to all Peakers: don't let this get you down. Don't panic, hold on and see the current situation as an opportunity. 

Stock prices have fallen sharply worldwide since mid-February. This can make you insecure and doubt whether investing is still a good idea, especially if you have not experienced a stock market crisis before. 

Remember that all crises are temporary. When the newspaper headlines shout ‘Stock market crash’, ‘Markets deep red’, etc., it’s important to stop and think: instead of focusing on your loss, you could also look at it as a chance to buy almost all the companies in the world at a discount. The proverbial ‘sale’ has begun.

Rethink and keep going

The Dutch football legend Johan Cruyff once said: ‘Every disadvantage has its advantage’. This is certainly the case now. The value of your investments has dropped considerably, but the advantage is that if you invest now, you can buy the same investments at greatly reduced prices. When the stock markets eventually recover, you will have benefited. 

I myself started investing when I was about seventeen years old, in the mid-nineties. Since then, many stock market crises have passed: the dot-com bubble that burst in 2000, the financial crisis of 2008, the corona crisis, the start of the war in Ukraine and many other crises, both large and small. Some lasted a short time, others a longer period, but they all had one thing in common: they eventually passed and the stock markets recovered. In hindsight, they were all moments when it was actually attractive to invest.

If you look back at today's period in a few years' time, it will probably appear to be a good rather than a bad time to start investing. After all, investments are cheaper now because stock prices have fallen.

So don't let it get you down! This crisis too shall pass. So keep your eye on the long term and steer a steady course.

Diversify and stick to your investment strategy

As an investor, it's important to diversify your investments and to continue to invest regularly, whether the prices are high or low. This is exactly what you do with Peaks.

The Peaks portfolios are well diversified. You invest in stocks from around the world (America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and emerging markets) and in European bonds. The latter often perform well in these times as a safe haven and support your Peaks portfolio. The broad diversification ensures that you don’t run more risk than necessary.

With the periodic investment options that you can set yourself, such as investing a fixed amount weekly or monthly, your roundups or a percentage of your salary, you ensure that you automatically invest regularly, whether the prices are high or low.

No one knows what will happen in the near future in the political and economic arenas, and/or whether the stock market will continue to fall or rise again. The only thing we do know is that historically, the economy and stock market have always recovered from every dip or crash. So that's what we're holding on to.

In short, hang in there, we will make it through this dip too!