Raising my blood pressure
John Stackhouse
Vice President of Wealth Management at Palmetto Citizens Federal Credit Union
As medical science progresses new updates are made and changes to some standards happen. Think of how far we have come in this area from working with letches to a hospital room looking like the cockpit of a 747 with the bed as the seat. As we learn more, the standards, minimums, and acceptable levels change.
In 2017 one of these changes took place related to blood pressure. There was a set standard prior that if you were above certain levels you would be considered as having high blood pressure. This was a goal many people strived for. They dieted, exercised, medicated their way to proudly declare they had finally come in below. But just as you may be celebrating, they just lowered the threshold by 10 more points. Meaning the line in the sand from low to high blood pressure went from 140/90 to now 130/80. Hence now millions more people now are considered to have high blood pressure when just months earlier they were in great shape. Did you change your goals and objectives about your bold pressure? The standards changed around you, rather the expectations changed around you.
If we can translate this from the medical world into the financial, there are some similarities. You have worked with a financial professional just as you would a doctor. You have created a financial plan with your goals and objectives and appropriate strategies were provided just as the doctor would prescribe a diet or exercise regimen. You are working on the same plan but now because of the changes to the investment markets, you start to have a sense of changing expectations. The stock market hitting numerous all-time highs might feel as if the standards for what your returns should be have changed. However, if the objectives are still valid, and the appropriate strategies are being used to manage those objectives, there has not been a change to the standards, just possibly the expectations.
Expectations tend to drive many of our feelings about someone or something. Expectations can quickly change just as in the example about the changes in blood pressure. It may make you question if you are still on track. Expectations are often not met without the support of an agreement. It is having an agreement, a plan, a structure that binds the goals to the plan of action.