The poor folks on Malaysian Flight 370 have perished, and many families have been devastated by the disappearance of their loved ones. No apparent answers are in sight.

Each day, the news media have a new expert on TV to give their theory of what happened. Was it the pilots, the two individuals with fake passports? Was it a conspiracy between crew members, or one other of the many theories that have surfaced? The fact is that no one really knows. And if and when the whole tragedy is ever solved, the experts that held on to their theory will be nowhere to be found.

Watching football is enjoyable, until the ex-coach turned announcer tries to predict each play before it happens. They’re wrong about 95 percent of the time, but the 5 percent of the time they’re correct, they certainly let you know about it. The rest of the predictions are just shoved under the carpet.

This is no different than the prognosticators who predict we will have a correction in the market. Of course we will, if the long-standing history of the ups and downs of the market repeats itself. The question is, when will that happen, and what gains will you miss when you’re not in the market.

Trying to time the market with your emotions rarely works. You might accurately predict an event that could affect the market negatively, and jump out, but then the next decision is when to jump back in. Most of the investors who experienced the dramatic losses in their portfolios in 2008, may have recovered their losses 12 to 18 months later.

Although there are some people who market themselves as the genius’ who predicted different corrections in the market, in digging a bit deeper, you find that they predicted a lot of things. And when one of the predictions comes true, they make sure everyone knows about it, and yet the other predictions are again swept under the carpet. Let’s face it, nobody knows when a bunch of terrorists are going to fly into a building. Even the “I told you so” genies of 2008 had made predictions for years before one or two of their theories materialized.

If someone predicts rain in western Kansas, might they eventually be correct? Let’s hope so.

The lesson here is to allow your adviser to collect information from you on your age, risk tolerance, investment time-frame, etc. and make recommendations tailored to you. And until this changes, remain steady and unemotional, and certainly don’t try to outguess what the market is going to do. You’ll be wrong as many times as you’ll be right.

P.S. It’s simply amazing how fast time goes by. All the New Year’s resolutions you made are either going well or have gone. The diet program that promised 40 pounds weight loss in the first week, you now realize lied to you. However, it’s never too late to start some sort of savings plan whether it is for an emergency fund, college education, retirement or any other financial circumstance that occurs.

The key is to have the discipline to “pay yourself first.” Carve off that little bit up front for you, before anything else is addressed. You’ll be glad you did.

Tim Schumacher, CLU, ChFC, LUTCF, is from Strategic Financial Partners, Hays. Next month’s column will discuss long-term care insurance.