The paradox and opportunity of investing is that the best times to invest are when people feel the worst. As counter intuitive as it may seem, this may be one of those times.

Discussions about investing often overlook the obvious fact that stocks are businesses. Although we invest in mutual funds and ETFs (baskets of stocks), individual stocks can help illustrate the long-term case for investing and why, in part, the market is down.

Crashes always feel like opportunities in retrospect and like risks in the present.

Because the day-to-day experience of a bear market is so draining, investors need to absorb the glass-half-full case to remain fortified.

Second, 2020 should humble investors from drawing direct lines from the news or their lives to stock markets. Most expect the market narrative to match their worldview. Often, this approach allows fear to drive action. There are too many variables with too much unpredictability, uncertainty, and potential bias for anyone to reliably draw these lines.