Turning Volatility into Opportunity: 7 Strategies to take advantage of a market downturn

If you've been watching the financial markets lately, you know that volatility is the name of the game. Prices rise, they fall, and it can feel like you’re riding a rollercoaster at times. But here’s the good news: Volatility doesn’t always have to be a bad thing. In fact, with the right strategy, market downturns and fluctuations can present incredible opportunities for savvy investors.

Welcome to The Retirement Fix, a podcast offering strategies for less stress and more success in your go-go retirement years. I’m your host, John Gigliello, a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ with the Albany Financial Group and I’m here to be your guide to keeping more of your hard-earned money by making smart financial decisions in retirement. This podcast is for people nearing or in retirement who want to learn more about proactive tax planning, retirement income planning, social security timing, investment management and asset protection.  After a life-altering health issue at age 39, my calling in life became clear: To share my knowledge of personal finance with people who are looking to make smart and responsible choices with their money. 

You can find out more about the services I offer as well as all my contact information on my website: www.jgigliello.com. For any questions, feel free to contact me at [e-mail].

In today’s episode, we’re diving into a timely topic: How to turn stock market volatility into opportunity. I’m going to share 7 ways you can potentially take advantage of a market downturn and make volatility work in your favor. 

While I want to touch on all 7 points, we will spend most of this episode talking about tax-loss harvesting - a common strategy that may help you save money by lowering your tax bill. Since this strategy can offset ordinary income, taxpayers in high tax brackets and high-tax states may benefit most.

Before I get into the details on the 7 strategies, I want to emphasize that I never encourage clients to try to “time the market,” but rather I urge most investors to stick with the long-term financial plan that we have designed to pursue their individual goals. Market volatility is built into each client’s financial plan because we know it’s going to happen. But we rarely know when.

And even when taking advantage of market downturns in the ways that I am about to explain, it is crucial to not lose sight of the overall plan.