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Happy New Year to our GROUNDFLOOR family and friends, near and far!
The beginning of a new year is a time traditionally filled with a sense of hope, expectation, and promise. We say goodbye to the good, the bad, and the ugly of the past year, and we turn to welcome the new year and all the endless possibilities it represents. Small wonder, then, that many describe the new year as a blank slate -- it’s an opportunity to start fresh, to take the lessons we learned from the past year and use them to propel us further and higher than before.
This sentiment feels especially poignant this year. As many people have noticed and commented, the real estate market and the financial market have both recently been experiencing shifts -- and not always for the better. What with the Federal Reserve again raising interest rates and the stock market’s recent volatility, it’s easy to become uncertain about where things will go as 2019 progresses. How serendipitous it is, then, that this uncertainty should be matched by the advent of new year’s optimism and hope.
We’ve learned a lot during the past decade or so, and we’ve used the lessons of the past to take a fresh approach to issues we face. In the wake of the major financial crisis of 2008, a number of fledgling entrepreneurs dreamed up wild, disruptive ideas to challenge entrenched financial norms to try to prevent such a crisis from happening again. Companies such as Robinhood, Stash, Acorns, and GROUNDFLOOR grew from the simple concept that everyone -- not just the Wall Street crowd -- should have access to investing opportunities that would allow them the most financial stability. We are indeed fortunate to have these tools at our disposal.
So instead of viewing the current state of the market in a negative light, what if, in the spirit of the new year, we did the opposite? As 2019 continues, let’s seize the chance to use the lessons we’ve learned and take advantage of the control available to be had over our financial lives. Let’s resolve to use these tools to help us chart financial paths that make the most sense for us. And instead of focusing on the uncertainty of the market, let’s remember that without volatility and change, there is no growth.
That sounds like a new year’s story for the books to me.