Biggest mistake from the Great Recession: In the middle innings of the crisis, financials looked really really cheap so we would gravitate there because we trusted management — in the GFC, knowing a lot actually hurt you because it was all so unprecedented. You had kind of a false sense of security.

Best move from the Great Recession: One of the things I learned is when stuff is going on that is unprecedented, it’s a smart thing not to take risks. Don’t try to be a hero, get down in the foxhole, go to risk off, raise some cash. There were times when I said I don't know what's going on but it's more prudent to sit on the sidelines until I figure it out.

Takeaway for today: My biggest piece of advice for today is find stocks you can marry and not just date. If you are going to own a stock, make sure you are comfortable owning it through rougher times ahead. Don’t try to get it because in three months you think the market will be strong. The Fed is definitely going to raise rates again and again and again, and I think that’s going to push us into a decent recession. I’m not saying don’t buy stocks, but make sure you’re comfortable owning them through that kind of recession.

Dry Powder
Jamie Lima, founder and president, Woodson Wealth Management

Biggest mistake from the Great Recession: Early on I would sometimes let clients lead the way too much, and a lot of that was based on emotion. That was two years into my career and I literally had grown men crying on my shoulder because they were going to have to tell their wives to go back to work, or not to do things they were going to do.

Best move from the Great Recession: When you have some dry powder, that’s when you can take advantage of opportunities in a recession. The people that had purchasing power were able to go out and buy three, four, even five houses at rock-bottom prices and now they're flush with cash. That’s because these houses are worth beaucoup bucks and they have income coming in. They were able to pounce on an opportunity when people were really fearful. That could be like what’s happening now, if investors stay the course and buy as much as possible on a discount.

Takeaway for today: I would never tell anyone to take all their funds and go into Bitcoin, but within our portfolios, we have a 2-3% allocation to cryptocurrency. You can actually buy ETFs that can get you exposure to Bitcoin futures, or companies that transact in Bitcoin. Given the current dip — and the fact that Bitcoin is likely not going anywhere, even though it’s down — it may be able to drive some excess returns in the future.

Don’t Rush
Deborah Ellis, certified financial planner, Cogent Independent Advisors

Biggest mistake from the dot-com recession: When I saw the market go down, I totally freaked out that we were all in stocks and didn’t have any mutual funds or ETFs. At the time, the big push was you have to be diversified, and the only way to be diversified was to have index funds. I went way into funds and didn’t understand the funds or why I was in them.

Best move from the dot-com recession: We didn’t know enough about the tech companies to buy them. So yes, our assets went down, but not substantially.  The major companies that we held weren’t as volatile — they had funding, they had a good base, they went down but didn't go out of business like so many of the dot-com companies.