All That Matters: The Worries That Weren't
In this month’s episode of All That Matters, Mike and Ross mark a first for the series: recording together in the studio. To celebrate the milestone, they look back at the market worries that have come and gone since the show began, and why rational, pragmatic optimism can help investors stay focused through the noise.
A Look Back
Mike: Welcome to All That Matters with Mike and Ross. Ross, we got a fresh new location. We've moved into the home studio here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. No longer in our home offices. They're elevating us, Ross, to a higher level.
Ross: It's amazing. There's a whole team back there. I escaped Kentucky to come up here, and I'm super excited about it.
Mike: Speaking of milestones, August 2026 felt like a good time to look back at how far we've come. We started All That Matters in April of 2023, which means we've been doing this for a little over three years. I looked up what happened to the stock market over that period. The S&P 500 is up a little under 100% since we started. That's a remarkable run, but what's interesting is that those gains didn't happen without plenty of worries along the way. That nearly 100% return was filled with concerns, headlines and predictions about what could go wrong.
Ross: That's exactly right. The stock market has nearly doubled, but every month seemed to bring a new worry. We've talked about many of them on this show, and throughout that time we've always tried to approach investing with what Mike calls a rational, pragmatic optimism. This has obviously been a strong bull market, but it's worth revisiting some of those fears because it highlights something important. Investors are constantly bombarded with bad news, and understanding how to push through that noise matters.
Worries We Heard From Clients
Mike: One of the biggest concerns we heard about over the last three years was commercial real estate. There were countless predictions that office buildings would implode, that it would become the next financial crisis and that it would drag down the economy and the market along with it. We heard about it not only from our advisors, but directly from clients. Here we are today with the stock market at an all-time high. One reason is that the market eventually got clarity. Once these buildings started trading and transactions happened, investors could finally understand what those assets were worth. The uncertainty began to fade.
Ross: Commercial real estate became a fear that punched through into the public conversation. During the pandemic, people were working from home and facing headlines that this would be the next financial crisis. Naturally, people started drawing comparisons. That's scary because many investors lived through that period. But markets adjusted. Office real estate faced challenges, but real estate like data centers, industrial real estate and hotels experienced different trends. Investors eventually realized it wasn't the same kind of crisis many feared. What stands out is that it was once one of the biggest concerns in the market, and now it's something we barely talk about.
Mike: We spent a lot of time talking about it, too. People often jump straight to the worst-case scenario. The market doesn't do that. The market tries to understand how big a problem is, how much pain might result and what the likely outcome could be. Once investors can get their arms around an issue, even a difficult one, it often becomes far less frightening.
Another topic we spent a lot of time discussing was the dollar. What's interesting about the dollar is that it represents so many different things at once. Interest rates. Elections. Global trade. Government spending. Oil prices. Economic strength. When people tell us they're worried about a weak dollar, it's often difficult to know exactly which concern they're trying to describe.
Ross: And the language matters. When people hear “weak dollar,” they often assume it’s automatically bad. But it’s rarely that simple. A weaker dollar can help American companies sell products overseas. A stronger dollar can create different benefits. I also think some of the concern around the dollar reflects a broader worry about our place in the world. People wonder what it means for the U.S. economy, our leadership and our long-term competitiveness. To me, a lot of those currency fears are overblown. We still have the biggest economy in the world. We still have one of the most productive private sectors in the world. We have many of the leading AI companies and a large share of the unicorn startups. That’s why the dollar is a reserve currency. It’s not some mandate. It’s because of the depth of our financial markets, the productivity of our companies and the size of our country. The fears of de-dollarization became very popular over the past few years, but today those concerns have largely faded from the headlines.
Mike: One thing I always point out is that if you look at the dollar index today, levels like this have appeared in every decade going back to the 1970s. That's important perspective. Investors sometimes view today's concerns as unique, but worries about the dollar have existed for decades. Yet the economy, companies and markets have continued to move forward. The reason I like revisiting these worries is because there will always be another one. Commercial real estate. The dollar. The national debt. Elections. There will always be something. The problem is that investors can't make progress if they become frozen by every new fear. If you're constantly focused on what could go wrong, it's very difficult to stay invested and participate in long-term growth.
Ross: And that's true even if a concern ultimately turns out to be correct. Time horizons matter. If you're worried about something that might happen tomorrow, but it doesn't happen for years, you could miss an incredible amount of opportunity in the meantime. That's why we continue to focus on the things that have historically driven markets higher: innovation, earnings and profits. Those are the reasons the market sits at all-time highs today.
Summer Recap
Mike: Before we wrap up, I wanted to end on something a little lighter. I think this has been one of the best summers we've had in a long time. The stock market is at an all-time high. Movies are back in a big way. The box office is doing well. The World Cup brought visitors from around the world. Do we still have problems? Sure. We always will. But overall, the vibes feel really high right now. And personally, I'm sending two kids back to school. Empty nester soon. So I need the vibes to be high.
Ross: You’re going to have lots of movies to watch. I’m sending someone to kindergarten, so I’ll also need the vibes to be very high in my household. But when you’ve got Norwegians at Buc-ee’s and South Koreans eating barbecue in Texas, it’s good. The vibes are high.
Mike: Stay tuned. We’re going to do an election episode pretty soon, and we’re super pumped about that. Who doesn’t like talking about elections? We do. We’ll see you soon. Thanks.
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