The stock market felt some rocky times last year, but has been stable for the most part this year.

Certified Financial Planner Tim Heisterkamp with Journey Financial in Jefferson shares his thoughts on how the market fluctuated in 2020 to today.

“Well the market reacted right away with COVID. We had a big 34-percent drop in the market. Then after it hit bottom, which was about March 23rd just right after the economy was closed down, the market has been doing very, very well. We’ve had a steady rise to the up side. We have a pull back every once in a while, but so far the market keeps going up.”

Heisterkamp says part of the reason for the market bouncing back has been due to the federal stimulus payments to eligible citizens. He talks about how inflation has recently impacted spending when there’s been lots of available cash and too few goods to purchase.

“Things have gone up. You’ve seen it at the gas pump, you’ve seen it at the lumber yards. The experts on tv are telling us that this is going to be short term, that inflation will have a bump. Then as we work through all this COVID and now even the Delta variant that things will get back to normal and inflation will be going up at a normal rate. That’s the $64,000 question, who really knows? And I guess time will tell.”

Heisterkamp adds the additional funds that people are receiving from the federal government has helped the overall economy and even locally with small businesses.