How the Sky High Stock Market Affects You - KTVN Channel 2 - Reno Tahoe Sparks News, Weather, Video

In the corner of his office, Sparks financial advisor Greg Martin with Edward Jones Investments has an unorthodox display…food and other consumer products stacked up in a corner. The food isn't for him. He told us it demonstrates how people should invest. As he showed us, "This shelf right here gets a lot of reaction as people come into the office. The managers of mutual funds often take a product off the shelf if they feel it's not performing right and replace it with something else. So I often take things off the shelf and put some back on to show what people are investing in.”

And right now his corner is cresting, just like the stock market. The market’s a runaway freight train…a train ride that you love if you have money in it. Things are at a record-breaking high on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones has spiked an amazing 40% since President Trump's election. Today (Wednesday), it went up 323 points, closing at a sky high 26,115.65. But even if you don't have money invested, what happens on Wall Street does affect you, and your bank account. Martin told us the record rise “is unheard of, after the scars that we're still healing from."

Who would have thought the Dow would get to this blue-sky high? Especially since it took only seven days trading days to rocket from 25,000 to 26,000, easily setting the record for the fastest rise between 1,000-point barriers. But does it affect you if you're not invested? Surprise...you are invested. Bodie Monroe with Legacy Wealth Planning in Reno told us, "You're still benefiting from it, because people that are invested in it and it goes up, they spend more money. And all of our jobs depend on people spending money one way or another."

When people spend, more people are hired. And what happens on Wall Street also affects what you pay in interest. As Martin told us, "Interest rates go up as the market performs higher and higher and consumer confidence goes up."

And you're really going to notice if, and nobody hopes it happens, if and when the market takes a big dive, or even a crash. As Monroe says, "We saw what it did to our local economy when the stock market wasn't doing well in 2007, we saw what that did. I myself came from construction. My job ended, abruptly." Martin paints a similar picture: "Large layoffs…closings of stores in locations and overall wage loss."

So for now, what should you do if you have money to invest? Bodie says the market is not too high to jump into. As he put it, “Don't quit investing completely, because the markets have a tendency to continue the trend that they're in." And Greg is telling everyone he knows that your money has got to do something. Do nothing, and you lose: "If you're not invested in the market, you're not keeping up with inflation, and your buying power diminishes."