It’s been about a year since stock prices hit their low point during the long bear market. Since then, of course, we’ve seen a big rally, but some of the decisions you made when the market was at its lowest point may still be affecting your portfolio’s performance and prospects. So now that we’ve reached the one-year anniversary of the market bottom, it’s a good time to see where you are today and how you can prepare for tomorrow.

In looking back at the market depths of a year ago, it’s important to note that we didn’t get there overnight. In fact, stock indexes had fallen about 50 percent since hitting their all-time high in October 2007, which means that investors had gone through a 16-month downturn. Consequently, it’s not surprising that many people, tired of seeing gloomy investment statements month after month, decided to “play it safe” for a while by putting large sums into fixed-rate vehicles such as Certificates of Deposit (CDs). A lot of those CDs had one-year maturities, which means they’re now coming up for renewal. Read more –>