Market Timing For Growth Funds

There is a time for everything, including entering and exiting markets.  When the recession hit in 2008, investors made mad migration out of emerging markets and more riskier assets like small cap growth stocks.  The fled to hide in the safe shelter of the US dollar and the ever safe asset: gold.

Now we are in the midst of one of the weirdest and uncertain economic times we’ve ever been in.  It’s one thing to know when you are in a recession or at least beginning one.  It’s another to not know where we stand as a global economy.

There has been a lot of talk about recover, but investors aren’t so sure.  We hear of things like a jobless recovery, an economic upturn without job creation.  How is that even possible?  Or how can retail have sustained growth without consumers having jobs and disposable income.

So it may seem that a lot of the rally that we’ve seen in the stock market is really artificial and not really based on anything real.  Yes the stimulus packages did stimulate the stock market, for just a bit.  But we’re not so sure that it did anything, and the bill for the stimulus is coming due.

So, to the subject at hand: growth funds.  There is a time to enter these funds and a time to get out.  What time is it?  No one really knows for sure.

The best time to get into aggressive growth funds is when the market is about to rally into a sustained season of growth and recovery.  We’re not so sure we’re there yet.

Until I see some significant jobs and income growth, as well as a lower unemployment rate, I’m going to just assume that any uptick in consumer retail is due to stimulus money from student loans and temporary government contracts, pent up demand, or on credit cards.  All of those sources of consumer spending is not good for the overall, long term health of the economy.

I would stay out of growth funds until you see a real reason to believe that the economy is on a road to recovery, which is a much positive jobs growth and lowering unemployment.

Entry level finance jobs can be hard to find even in this economy

Entry level finance jobs are not the easiest jobs to find partly because of the economy. In this economy finding entry level finance jobs can be harder than it looks because of how many people are competing for those entry level jobs.

If you look in the classifieds or even on job boards around the country, you might have a hard time finding jobs for entry level finance. Before the economy crashed as hard as it did accounting, jobs were easy to find. The main reason that accounting jobs were so easy to find was because fewer people were working in the finance field, including accounting or auditing.

Now that the economy has crashed, more people are seeking career advice so that they can find new jobs in more stable careers. With more people seeking career advice, more people are drifting towards the finance fields because of how stable accounting and finance are. No matter how bad the economy is people and businesses still need auditors, accountants and other members of the finance field. To help make this transition people are seeking entry level finance jobs to help jump start their career in business.

Another reason that entry level finance jobs are so hard to find in this economy is because of how many graduates there are. Once people start graduating from college they are looking for work, these graduates combined with people who have been laid off, so finding jobs can get tougher. Normally college graduates do not have to worry about too much competition because most people who have previously graduated already have secure jobs. With the economy going downwards people who had stable employment have been laid off so they are looking for work.

Another factor is that people with years of experience in the accounting or finance field who are looking for work are accepting jobs that they would not normally accept. What this means is that college graduates, recent graduates and experienced business professionals are now competing for the same job openings just so they can have a job. With this, many people competing for the entry level jobs it makes them even harder to find. Businesses that are getting applications from experienced accountants or finance experts are hiring the experienced people over the college graduates for the entry level positions.

Another reason that entry level finance jobs are hard to find is because of the sheer number of people who are unemployed. For every position that is available, you will find about five unemployed workers, so sometimes it falls down to the early bird gets the job. It used to be that the entry level positions were among the last to go because the pay is not the best nor are the benefits, but people’s views on entry level jobs today are its better than being unemployed, so they take whatever they can get.

This economy has allowed employers to be picker about what they will accept for entry level finance jobs, which also makes them harder to find. Recent college graduates will not have 5 years experience or even one year experience in the finance field. When employers raise the minimum requirements on entry level jobs this means fewer people can qualify for the jobs, and can often move the position from entry level to experience based.