Preparing for bear markets

By Mike Switzer

Published June 17, 2025 at 6:30 AM EDT

William Jeter, certified financial planner with Abacus Planning Group in Columbia, S.C.

In early April of this year, the S&P 500 briefly registered a 20% decline from its all-time high. In fact, if you blinked, you missed it. But it does still mean that we technically had a bear market this year. Is it over? While our next guest says he doesn’t have a crystal ball he does say there are some things you can do to prepare for the next bear market. Mike Switzer interviews William Jeter, a chartered financial analyst with Abacus Planning Group in Columbia, SC.

Tags

Mike Switzer

After almost 20 years, Mike Switzer retired from Wells Fargo Securities in 2001 as Senior Vice President/Investment Officer and Certified Portfolio Manager. In 1999, he and his wife, Maggie, purchased and operated for eight years the Baskin Robbins ice cream store on Forest Drive in Columbia. They grew the store from a bottom-tier operation in the Baskin Robbins franchise system to one in the top 5% nationwide within three years, tripling sales along the way. While operating the ice cream store, Mike and Maggie received patents for a portable ice cream sink and fold-down sneezeguard they invented and in 2002 started Magnolia Carts, an ice cream cart manufacturing company, which they sold in 2013.

See stories by Mike Switzer