“It’s unlike any rate hike we’ve ever seen,” Wander says. “I can’t recall a time in history when the Fed has raised rates while hoping for greater levels of inflation.”

Some analysts, like Jeffrey Gundlach, CEO of DoubleLine Capital, argue that the markets aren’t ready for the increase. That view was panned by Joseph Davis, chief economist of Vanguard Investment Strategy Group, in a statement released after the decision.

“In our opinion, those who claim that raising rates is a ‘policy mistake’ that may derail the U.S. recovery underappreciate the still-accommodative stance of monetary policy and the resiliency of the U.S. economy. There is little to no empirical support showing a strong and material link between a 25 basis point rate hike and future U.S. economic conditions given the still-negative real fed funds rate.”

In fact, this was a decision that the Fed could have made some time ago, argues Chris Beck, CIO of small-cap value and mid-cap value equity at Philadelphia-based Delaware Investments.

“When you look at the history of what they did, it was supposed to be a three-month temporary stopgap back in 2008 to shore up the financial markets, but it got to the point where they not only kept it at zero, but they did quantitative easing for the sake of the stock market. It was very helpful to people invested in stocks, they have thoroughly enjoyed the ride, but I happen to believe that when you have an economy that’s growing, even at the modest rate of 2 percent, rates above zero are appropriate.”

After the announcement, the major indexes reported modest gains Wednesday afternoon.

“This is a well-engineered lift-off,” says Jeff Klingelhofer, portfolio manager and managing director at Santa Fe, N.M.-based Thornburg Investment Management. “It was much more anticipated by the markets as a whole than it was in September

Barring unforeseen developments, the Fed isn’t done raising rates, with several more hikes likely to come in 2016.

“The pace will be gradual and data-dependent as they look at the employment situation and inflation,” says Ragan. “A lot of people we talk to expect fewer rate increases, but their 1.4 or 1.5 percent target seems realistic.”