How to Manage Your Personal Finances During Periods of Market Volatility

If you’re a regular consumer of financial news, you’re well aware that the economy has been experiencing some volatility lately. Frankly, even if you don’t have CNBC on in the background or read the Wall Street Journal every morning, it’s been hard to avoid worrying about your finances over the past few months. First eggs became a luxury good. Then the federal government announced a slate of steep new tariffs, then spent days announcing policies that were undoing — or sometimes redoing — them. The dollar dropped in response. There’s talk about the entire global economic order shifting away from U.S. dominance. At least Bitcoin is doing well? Needless to say, the effect all of this has had on your portfolio is pure chaos.  

At Origin, we know just how unsettling market turbulence can be. “I completely understand why you're feeling uneasy,” Origin’s Head of Planning Tyler Horn says. “Market volatility can be stressful, and it's completely natural to feel anxious.” But as an all-in-one financial planning platform, helping you navigate these tricky moments is part of our bread and butter. Whether you’re contending with the consequences of tariffs, uncertain employment status, tumbling stock prices, or any other sort of economic hurdle, Origin is here to help.

To get you through, we want to normalize something that doesn’t always feel very normal: market volatility. When we’re living through it, it can feel dramatic, unpredictable, and even alarming. But the truth is, volatility is a completely expected part of long-term investing. Historically, bear markets (that is, when markets experience prolonged drops of 20% or more) show up every 3.6 years, meaning you’ll face around 14 of them over a 50-year investing journey. But stocks still rise 78% of the time overall. 

“Staying focused on your long-term goals, rather than short-term noise, will help you stay on track and feel more in control,” Tyler says. “It’s important during times of uncertainty to remember to focus on why and what we are investing for.” 

To help set you up for maximum success during tumultuous economic times, Tyler’s shared a few specific strategies with us. Let’s dive into his advice: 

1. Avoid emotional investment decisions

Take a deep breath (or seven). Don’t look at your portfolio everyday — or even every week.

As humans, we’re wired for survival, and when something feels like a threat — like seeing our money decrease — we want to take action. This is where emotional decision-making can really hurt us. Historically, the average investor underperforms the market not because of bad investments, but because of bad timing — that is, selling low and buying high. Stay disciplined and avoid panic-driven choices that could harm your long-term financial health. The goal isn’t to remove emotion from investing — that’s not possible — but to have a plan that helps you respond rather than react.

2. Focus on your overall financial plan

This is where financial planning becomes so important. Having a clear plan helps you take a step back from the emotional noise and focus on what really matters: your goals, your needs, and your timeline. A plan gives you structure. It shows you how all the parts of your financial life work together. And most importantly, it gives you confidence that you’re making smart choices — even when the market isn’t cooperating. Remember that investment performance is just one part of a comprehensive financial plan, which includes savings strategies, estate planning, insurance, and other key components.

3. Review your cash flow

Understand what’s coming in, what’s going out, and whether anything has changed recently. Maybe your income has dropped. Maybe you’ve had a large, unexpected expense. Or maybe your spending is staying the same, but your comfort level around it has shifted. 

4. Boost your emergency fund

This is your financial safety net, the money you can rely on if your income suddenly stops or something unexpected happens. We typically recommend having at least 3 to 6 months of essential expenses saved in a highly accessible account, like a savings account or money market fund. If you’re self-employed, have variable income, or work in a more volatile industry, you may want to aim for more than that. Plus, if you don’t want to put any more money in the market at the moment, cash can still bring in some decent returns, since many banks are still offering high-yield accounts with rates around 4%. (At Origin, our boosted cash account rate tops out over 5% with our boosted promotional rate as of April 15.) In any case, the goal is to give yourself peace of mind and space to breathe if something disrupts your normal routine.

5. Revisit your investment strategy

This is a good topic to bring to your next meeting with your financial planner. (Don’t have one? Origin can help you out!) They’ll help you evaluate your portfolio diversification and asset allocation, with a couple different considerations in mind, including questions ensuring that your holdings align with your risk tolerance and risk capacity, and creating (or tweaking) a balanced approach that is tailored to both your short- and long-term goals. Part of this check-up should include reviewing how market volatility affects your long-term retirement savings and determining whether or not your contribution strategy should change. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to this; it depends on variables like your age, when you plan to retire, and what you want to do in retirement.

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All of these strategies for making it through this turbulent time are contingent on knowing where you stand. Tracking your money activity (whether that’s spending, budgeting, planning, investing, or saving) is crucial to keeping you on track and making it through this moment with as little stress as possible. Origin helps you do all that easily and effortlessly, and gives you 24/7 access to our AI-powered chat that gives you CFP®-designed answers to all your personal finance questions. 

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