Greetings!
Welcome to this week’s edition of Advice for the Good Life — your weekly pause to reflect, recalibrate, and move forward with greater clarity in the areas that matter most. If you find value here, please enjoy, share with a friend, and consider subscribing so you don’t miss a single dispatch in the months ahead.
As always, we’re guiding you through three familiar paths.
In today’s Wealth Advisory we’ll take a thoughtful look at how our own psychology often shapes investment outcomes more than markets ever do. After years of strong performance, expectations can quietly drift from what history supports to what headlines suggest. This week we explore how behavioral finance — recency bias, herd behavior, and loss aversion — can distort good plans, and how disciplined frameworks help investors stay grounded when emotions run high.
Next, your Wellness Navigator invites you into a personal reset. Christine Despres shares what she’s experiencing during Dry January and how even a short break from alcohol can sharpen mental clarity, improve sleep, stabilize mood, and restore energy. It’s not about perfection — it’s about understanding how to come back strong after life’s full, joyful seasons.
And in Etcetera, I turn the spotlight away from my keyboard and toward your voice. As 2026 begins, I’d like to listen more than talk. You’ll find a short survey designed to better understand what you need, what you value, and how we can make this community more helpful for you in the year ahead.
Thank you for being here. May this edition meet you exactly where you are — and help you take your next good step forward.
Wealth Advisory: Using Behavioral Finance to Set Expectations
Recent years have delivered impressive returns for stock market investors, providing meaningful support for long-term financial objectives. However, these favorable outcomes can sometimes create expectations that may not align with historical market patterns. Successful investing requires navigating both favorable and challenging market environments, making it essential to establish realistic expectations based on historical data, rigorous analysis, and personalized financial strategies.
Behavioral finance examines how individuals respond psychologically to investment decisions and market conditions. More than five decades of academic research has demonstrated that investors often exhibit cognitive and emotional tendencies that can lead to less-than-optimal financial outcomes. While market movements, economic conditions, and policy decisions remain outside our direct influence, we maintain complete control over how we respond to market developments and news events.
Recognizing these psychological tendencies offers practical value beyond theoretical knowledge. These behavioral patterns affect all investors regardless of education or expertise. The distinguishing factor for successful long-term investors lies not in completely avoiding these tendencies, but in implementing disciplined frameworks that promote sound decision-making despite their presence.
Maintain perspective beyond recent market activity.
Investors naturally tend to emphasize recent developments when making financial decisions, as current events receive significant media attention. This pattern, commonly referred to as recency bias, becomes problematic when short-term observations overshadow well-established historical patterns. It reflects the assumption that recent conditions represent a fundamental shift from historical norms.
Following six years of double-digit gains in seven years for the S&P 500, investors may begin perceiving such performance as typical rather than exceptional. This perception can create two potential pitfalls: assuming the pattern will persist indefinitely or expecting a downturn simply because markets have performed well recently.
Historical analysis reveals a more complex picture. The chart demonstrates that while the S&P 500 has delivered average annual total returns exceeding 10% historically, individual years show substantial variation. The recent period of strong performance has historical precedents, yet provides no guarantee regarding future outcomes. Successful long-term investing focuses on capturing the market’s positive trajectory over time rather than attempting to predict near-term results based solely on recent performance.
Recency bias becomes particularly challenging when combined with herd mentality. During rising markets, concerns about missing opportunities can prompt investors to deviate from well-designed investment plans. This may manifest as increasing equity allocations beyond appropriate levels, concentrating positions in popular sectors such as artificial intelligence and technology, or assuming excessive risk. Historical patterns demonstrate that investor sentiment fluctuates, emphasizing the importance of maintaining consistent investment discipline.
Addressing these behavioral tendencies doesn’t mean disregarding recent market performance, but rather evaluating it within appropriate historical context. Strong returns warrant portfolio reviews to confirm that asset allocations remain aligned with long-term financial objectives.
Evaluate portfolio changes rationally rather than emotionally.
Another relevant behavioral pattern involves how investors perceive portfolio gains and losses. The stock market’s extensive history illustrates this concept clearly. When examining the S&P 500 across multiple decades, periodic market declines appear relatively modest compared to the long-term upward trend. However, during these downturns, investors often experience significant emotional reactions.
Psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, whose work established foundational principles in behavioral science, observed that “losses loom larger than gains.” This describes loss aversion, the tendency to experience the negative impact of losses more intensely than the positive impact of equivalent gains. Consider the emotional impact of a $100 gain compared to a $100 loss. For most individuals, the negative experience of loss creates a more lasting impression and influences subsequent decisions.
This psychological pattern matters because reaching financial objectives requires maintaining investment discipline through various market conditions. The chart illustrates that although the stock market has posted gains in approximately two-thirds of years, intra-year declines frequently occur. Recent tariff-related volatility exemplifies this dynamic. Investors who reduced equity positions prematurely, particularly near market lows, forfeited the subsequent recovery that carried markets to record levels.
Explore opportunities across multiple investment categories and regions.
The tendency toward home bias, where investors favor familiar investments in their home markets, has become increasingly relevant in current market conditions. A specific manifestation, home country bias, describes the pattern of overweighting domestic holdings even when international opportunities may offer compelling characteristics.
During the past decade, U.S. equities have generated robust returns relative to developed and emerging market stocks, supported by technology sector strength and solid corporate earnings. Yet this pattern doesn’t persist indefinitely. In 2025, both the MSCI EAFE index of developed market stocks and the MSCI EM index of emerging market stocks delivered superior dollar-denominated returns compared to U.S. markets. While future patterns remain uncertain, this underscores the value of diversification across asset classes and geographic regions.
Historical evidence demonstrates that market leadership rotates over time in ways that prove difficult to forecast. The accompanying chart reveals that international markets currently exhibit lower valuations than U.S. equities, potentially enhancing portfolio risk-reward profiles. Effective investing prioritizes consistent performance across complete market cycles rather than maximizing returns in isolated periods.
The bottom line? Following multiple years of robust market gains, maintaining realistic expectations remains essential for investors. Historical patterns demonstrate that equity markets have provided long-term growth, though capturing these returns requires managing emotional reactions to near-term market developments.
Wellness Navigator and Holistic Brain Health Coach, Christine Despres, RN, NBC-HWC, CDP
The Brain Benefits of Dry January—Here’s what I’m Noticing
Life happens. And honestly? I wouldn’t have it any other way.
The last 6 weeks were FULL—holiday treats, travel, family stress, late nights seeing my favorite band, wine with friends and a sleep schedule that was…let’s just say flexible. 😊
By January 2nd, I was feeling it. Brain fog, sluggish energy, and my sleep score showed it (see the image below—it was rough).
Enter: Dry January
I’ll be honest—I wasn’t sure how much of a difference taking a break from alcohol would make. But one+ week in? My brain is telling me everything I need to know.
Here’s what’s happened since I stopped drinking:
- Better sleep quality – My sleep score jumped significantly. Alcohol disrupts REM sleep, which is critical for memory consolidation and emotional regulation.
- Sharper mental clarity – The brain fog lifted faster than I expected. Alcohol is a neurotoxin, and even moderate drinking impacts cognitive function.
- More consistent energy – No more afternoon crashes. Alcohol affects blood sugar regulation and mitochondrial function—the energy centers of your cells.
- Improved mood stability – I feel more even-keeled. Alcohol disrupts neurotransmitter balance, especially GABA and dopamine.
- Reduced inflammation – I can feel it in my body. (Less joint pain for starters.) Alcohol triggers inflammatory pathways that affect everything from your gut to your brain.
I will be honest, I’m not giving up wine for good—that’s not the goal. But this intentional break is proving just how much the brain benefits from the reset.
But it isn’t just about what I removed—it is about what I added back:
I got back to the basics that support brain health: a consistent sleep schedule (same bedtime, same wake time), daily movement and sweating, anti-inflammatory- MIND diet foods that nourish the body and staying well hydrated. Nothing extreme. Nothing punishing. Just putting my healthy habits back together, one day at a time.
One week. That’s all it took to feel more like myself again.
And just to be clear—I didn’t magically drop weight or come back stronger. I gained a few pounds and lost some strength. But I have my energy back, my mind is clear and I’m sleeping great. Those are the wins that actually change how I live each day.
My brain also got exactly what it needed during those 6 weeks—joy, deep connection, cherished traditions, dancing and memories that will last. Those experiences are brain health at its finest.
Is this starting to sound familiar?
These aren’t novel ideas. This is the foundation for making brain health a priority—and it’s the foundation that everything else is built on.
You don’t need a perfect track record. You need a solid comeback strategy. When you know how to reset your brain and body, you can fully enjoy those special moments—the celebrations, the spontaneity, the late nights with people you love—without the guilt or the endless recovery spiral.
To your health,
Christine
P.S. If you’re ready to build your own personalized recovery plan and finally break free from brain fog, weight gain and fatigue that’s been holding you back, let’s talk. My Reignite Your Mind & Metabolism program starts with your brain first—because when your brain is healthy, everything else falls into place. Book a free Brain Health Strategy session here> Strategy Call
I do a lot of talking around here, but would like to do more listening in 2026, beginning with the following survey. Whether you are a client or not, thank you in advance for taking the time to answer the eleven questions below.
JCG Advisory Partner Client and Prospective Client Survey
Thanks again!
As ever,
All my best,
