I saw a surprising chart the other day. It showed people’s economic outlook over time based upon their political affiliation. I expected that people’s politics would play a modest role in their view of the economy. Turns out it’s nothing like modest. At the end of 2016 during Obama’s last days as President, 45% of Democrats said the national economy was good or excellent versus only 15% of Republicans. Now? 79% of Republicans say the economy is good, versus only 33% of Democrats.
The problem? Many Republicans missed out on a large portion of the huge stock market recovery in the early 2010s because they didn’t like Obama. Ditto for Democrats with Trump since 2017 as the stock market has continued to climb higher.
It’s hard to look past our political outlook when thinking about everything. But when it comes to investing, as much as we can, we should set that aside. For many people it’s cost them big bucks over the last 10 years.