In the week following President Donald Trump’s announcement of sweeping tariffs, the S&P 500 briefly flirted with bear territory — defined as a 20% decline from recent highs — as worries swirled that the levies would reignite inflation and set off a trade war that could slow the global economy.

But on Wednesday, the President announced a 90-day pause on tariffs exceeding 10% for some countries, while raising duties on Chinese products to 125%. The S&P 500 climbed more than 9% on the day.

Even if they don’t typically come this rapidly, large swings in stock prices are part and parcel of being an investor. Take it from the late Charlie Munger, the longtime vice-chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and right-hand man to Warren Buffett.

“I think it’s in the nature of long-term shareholding that the normal vicissitudes in markets means that the long-term holder has the quoted value of his stocks go down by, say, 50%,” Munger told a BBC interviewer in 2009.

If you’re not willing to keep your chin up during the occasional rout, he continued, “you’re not fit to be a common shareholder, and you deserve the mediocre result you’re going to get compared to the people who can be more philosophical about these market fluctuations.”

Munger was speaking from experience. In 2009, shares in Berkshire Hathaway, which made up a sizeable portion of his portfolio, had declined by more than 50%. When asked if he had any worries about the state of the company and its stock, Munger cut off the interviewer.

“Zero,” he said. “This is the third time that Warren and I have seen our holdings in Berkshire Hathaway go down, top tick to bottom tick, by 50%.”

Each time, Berkshire Hathaway continued to invest in the stock market, with Munger and Buffett following the latter’s famous maxim: “Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful.”

That meant consistently buying stocks the pair saw as undervalued and having faith that U.S. businesses would return to boosting profits. Berkshire’s portfolio, just like the broad U.S. stock market, found new highs after each major drawdown.

Times of uncertainty and volatility in the stock market can be scary. But if you’re around for long enough, you’ll likely live through a few of them, Munger said.

“I think you can count on more booms and busts over your remaining lifetime. How big and with what cyclicality, I can’t tell you,” Munger told students at the University of Michigan in 2011 — another tumultuous year for stocks. “I can tell you the best way of coping, which is to just put your head down and behave creditably every day.”

In general, financial experts advise long-term investors to continue buying stocks through downturns. Historically, the long-term upward trajectory of the stock market has made such periods look like times to buy stocks on sale. In essence, if you already invest regularly, say, through a 401(k), you can leave things on autopilot.

Munger advised the crowd in Michigan that major drawdowns were rare opportunities to build wealth, recalling the advice of his great grandfather.

“Real opportunities that come to you are few,” he said, adding that almost no one is “bathed” in good fortune. “Most people just get a few times when they can make a huge difference by seizing a huge activity.”

For investors, when you have the opportunity to buy assets at a huge discount, it’s important to seize the moment to the best of your ability, and not leave your money sitting on the sidelines while you wait for things to get better, Munger said.

“When you get a lollapalooza, for God’s sakes, don’t hang by like a timid little rabbit,” Munger said. “Don’t hang back.”

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People with narcissistic traits often have an inflated sense of their own talents, achievements and significance in the world. They’re sensitive to criticism and struggle to have any empathy or appreciation for others.

This self-centered focus on their own needs is usually at the expense of everyone around them, which makes communicating with them challenging. You may be left feeling dismissed, criticized or invisible.

As a Harvard-trained psychologist, I’ve found that there are seven phrases you’ll hear from highly narcissistic people:

Narcissists see themselves as special and better than everyone else. They believe that other people should feel grateful to be in their orbit because they are all so flawed in comparison.

Similar phrases: 

• “You don’t deserve me.”
• “You should feel relieved that I haven’t cut you out of my life.”

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Many narcissists are chronically disappointed by others. In response, they may put those people down with cutting, hurtful and mean-spirited insults.

Similar phrases: 

• “You’re such a loser.”
• “No one else would ever want to be with you.”

Narcissists often resort to manipulative tactics like threats or intimidation to keep people invested in the relationship because they feel safer maintaining control, rather than sharing power.

Similar phrases: 

• “Be careful or you’ll push me away.”
• “I’ll ruin you if you cross me, and no one will want to be associated with you.”

It’s hard for people with narcissistic traits to empathize with others. As a result, they rarely see the other person in a relationship as an independent individual with their own thoughts, feelings and experiences.

Similar phrases: 

• “My feelings matter more.”
• “I’m usually right.”

Narcissists have a strong desire to feel superior to others. One way they do that is by putting people down. They tend to make negative comments about everyone else — friends, family or even unknown acquaintances — to build themselves up as part of a separate, special kind of person. 

Similar phrases: 

• “Your friend is lame. Why do you hang out with them?”
• “These people have nothing to offer me.”

When a narcissist is upset, they’ll blame others for their feelings instead of acknowledging their role in the situation. Rather than holding themselves accountable, they’ll complain about how unfair other people are.

Similar phrases: 

• “If you just did what I asked you to do, I wouldn’t be so upset right now.”
• “I wouldn’t be yelling if you didn’t make me so angry!”

People with narcissistic tendencies are good at stonewalling — cutting off communication to show how upset they are. They will pretend to not be affected, while giving you the silent treatment.

Similar phrases: 

• “I’m fine. What are you even talking about?”
• Saying nothing at all.

The best way to respond to a narcissist is not to react at all. Pause in the moment, but don’t leave the conversation entirely. Don’t yell or become defensive.

After a deep breath, you can say, “I need to think about this before I respond, so I’m going to need a minute.” This will give you time to collect your thoughts and notice your emotions. More importantly, you’ll be less likely to say something you might regret later.

Then, set clear boundaries. Here are some examples:

• “I hear you, I just don’t agree with you.”
• “Thank you for sharing your perspective. When you’re open to hearing mine, I can share it.”
• “It sounds like you’re having a lot of feelings right now. I am here to listen if you’d like, but if you put me down or intentionally try to hurt me, I am going to walk away because it isn’t healthy for me to be called names.”
• “I want you to know that I see you and I hear your perspective. I just have a different one, and that’s okay with me.”

Remember, while a narcissist may continue to communicate in harmful ways, their words can’t have power over you unless you let them.

Their most common communication tactics are manipulation and control. That is a reflection of who they are and how they experience they world, not a reflection of you and your values.

Dr. Cortney S. Warren, PhD, is a board-certified psychologist and author of the new book “Letting Go of Your Ex.” She specializes in romantic relationships, addictive behavior, and honesty. She received her clinical training at Harvard Medical School after earning her doctorate in clinical psychology from Texas A&M University. Follow her on Instagram @DrCortneyWarren or Twitter @DrCortneyWarren.

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In 2017, Sophie Hilaire graduated from The Wharton School with an MBA in Operations and moved to New York City to work as a consultant at McKinsey & Company. Before all of that, she was a Captain in the U.S. Army for six years.

“I grew up in the middle of nowhere Ohio, so to me, living in the city was a rite of passage,” she tells CNBC Make It. “It was great but I also felt like during the time I lived there, I was basically kind of a tourist.”

After a year of constant travel for work and spending only the weekends in her NYC apartment, Hilaire decided to take on a much different kind of challenge — climbing Mount Everest.

Hilaire already had experience climbing mountains like Mount McKinley in Alaska, Cotopaxi in the Andes Mountains and Chimborazo, the highest mountain in Ecuador.

She started training while still working full-time. When it came time for the climb, Hilaire was able to take advantage of the months-long sabbatical program offered at McKinsey.

“At the surface, I’ve always been drawn to lofty goals — ones that stretch the body and the spirit. I wanted to find out what would happen if I shut my laptop for two months and focused on this sole, raw experience while living in nature,” Hilaire says.

“When I did that, I had this epiphany that I wanted to spend more time in nature and Central Park to me wasn’t really the level of nature I needed.”

Hilaire returned from Nepal in the summer of 2019 and decided not to renew her lease.

“On the plane ride home, I knew I couldn’t go back to life in New York and that I had to be closer to nature,” she says. “That moment of knowing launched the next chapter — van life, homesteading, and loving myself. The mountain did transform me. She gave me direction and that’s been the real gift.”

Her job allowed Hilaire to be anywhere, so long as she was able to fly out to meet with clients around the country, which gave Hilaire flexibility to travel. But then the covid-19 pandemic hit and Hilaire found herself without a home and without a clue of where she wanted to head to next.

“I thought, ‘I’m not ready to pay rent or buy a house, so why don’t I move into a sprinter van and continue to visit different places and see where I want to land,’” Hilaire says.

“I always knew I wanted to get a van just to have, but this kind of felt like a no-regrets move because I thought, ’why don’t I just get it now, so I don’t have to pay rent anywhere and I can keep on traveling. I didn’t know how long the pandemic was going to last.”

Hilaire purchased a Sprinter van she found on Craigslist for $29,900, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. The van had been partially built out already but still needed a lot of work. Hilaire added a bedroom area, bathroom, IKEA cabinets, solar panels, and a desk. She did most of the work herself and estimates she spent about $18,500 in renovations.

Hilaire traveled all across the United States while living and continuing to work full-time as a consultant.

Hilaire eventually quit her job at McKinsey & Company and lived the van life full-time for two years. But, in 2022, she decided it was time to settle down.

As a first step, Hilaire switched to boutique consulting which meant she wasn’t as client-facing and didn’t need to travel for work. She went from making around $300,000 a year at McKinsey, not including bonuses, to making significantly less — under $100,000. Hilaire says it didn’t bother her.

“I wanted to have my own trees and have somewhere to experience four seasons. I wanted to have a garden. I wanted to be grounded and I wanted to build a life with someone, too,” she says. “It was really nice because I got to spend all that time with myself and develop a relationship with myself for the first time.”

Next, Hilaire had to decide where she wanted to set down some roots. She thought about a homestead — a house, usually a farmhouse, with separate buildings on a big piece of land. Hilaire says she wanted a homestead to “learn more about self-reliance and just be connected to a piece of land,” but she wasn’t prepared to buy one just yet.

At the same time, her friends had been trying to convince her to move to Kentucky. The family own a hunting property about an hour from their house where Hilaire could stay. The land was big enough for Hilaire to park her van, and she’d have free reign of the 16×40-foot Tuff Shed they bought from Home Depot for $23,000.

“I drove over there in my van and I was blown away by this place. I saw it probably at the worst time because it was the end of winter but I saw how beautiful it was,” Hilaire says.

Hilaire decided to stay and says it was the perfect situation because it would give her the ability to save to buy her own land one day. She also set her sights on transforming the Tuff Shed into a tiny home that her friends could use even after she was gone.

“Huge houses did not appeal to me after living in my van. It just felt more comfortable to me and reasonable to have a smaller space,” she says.

The shed had two lofts, outside walls and subflooring and was being used to store random hunting items. Hilaire got to work renovating in the summer of 2022.

Hilaire says she spent roughly $53,535 transforming the shed into a living space inspired by the Sea Ranch community in California, an unincorporated community known for its timber-frame structures. She added skylights, a kitchen, open closets, several decks, a bathroom, a utility closet, and a bed with cardboard boxes underneath for storage.

Hilaire says her first night in the shed was quiet and restorative.

“It was exciting but it was also so relaxing and just really peaceful,” she says. “It was just so nice being in complete silence.”

Hilaire spent a year renovating the shed and lived there for five months before she moved to a homestead she owns with her now-husband.

“In some ways, it’s sad, but in other ways, it was a beautiful thing. That shed took me exactly where I wanted to go,” she says. “I didn’t want to be in this shed forever.”

When the Army vet first met her now husband, some of their dates included working on the shed’s renovations.

“It was important for me while we were dating to see if we could work together on projects. I wanted someone who didn’t necessarily need to be so great at it but we should have fun doing it,” Hilaire says. “We quickly realized that we found the one.”

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There are a number alarming headlines flooding the news these days.

President Donald Trump’s on-again off-again tariff announcements have sent the stock market on a rollercoaster and renewed fears of a coming recession among consumers and businesses alike.

It’s understandable if your immediate response is to panic. “There’s no question that today’s headlines are coming at us very fast and furious and can also be very scary,” says Mary Clements Evans, a certified financial planner and accredited behavioral financial professional.

“I think that we believe if we worry about something enough, we can protect ourselves from bad things happening,” she says. “Worrying doesn’t help, but being prepared does.”

It’s difficult to plan for the unknown, but worrying won’t guarantee a certain outcome, either negative or positive. Instead, Clements Evans offers three pieces of advice you can use to feel more confident to navigate this period of economic uncertainty.

First, focus on what you can control, Clements Evans says. You can’t stop a recession from coming, but you can control how prepared you are by taking steps such as boosting your emergency savings and revisiting your budget.

In terms of emergency savings, “if you’re working and not spending from your investments, prepare for a layoff,” she says. “Have at least six months’ worth of financial needs in cash. More, if you’re worried it will be difficult to find another job.”

Similarly, self-made millionaire and best-selling author Ramit Sethi recommends aiming to save enough to cover 12 months’ worth of expenses.

It may be difficult to stash six months to a year’s worth of expenses, especially if you’re already struggling to save. But every little bit helps, so it’s wise to put away whatever you can.

While you can decide when to buy and sell stocks, once your money’s in the market, you have very little control over what happens to it. That can be stressful, but pulling your money out because you’re scared or frustrated by market volatility probably isn’t the solution you need, Clements Evans says.

“People don’t make money mistakes because they’re dumb,” she says. “They make mistakes because they’re emotional.”

Sethi agrees. Often, investors try to mimic what they think wealthy people are doing based on headlines that instill fear and the feeling that rich people have secret market knowledge others don’t, he says.

He advises against making any drastic money moves right now, no matter how bad the headlines make you feel, unless you’re already facing a financial emergency.

“One of the most important things in a time like this is to slow down and be methodical,” Sethi says.

Since worrying doesn’t help, Clements Evans encourages you to take a break from reading the news and find reasons to smile.

“Take a humor break,” she says. “Go listen to something funny.”

With so much news pouring in, it can be tempting not to look away in fear of missing something. But if you’ve already taken the steps you can to prepare for a personal downturn, you’re allowed to think about other things for as long as you need to de-stress, Clements Evans says.

“I’ve always believed in the power of laughter,” she says. “This doesn’t mean you’re ignoring bad events or feelings. You’re not being uncaring or irresponsible. You’re just taking a break from it.”

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The newest tariffs implemented by President Donald Trump put the universal rate on imports from most U.S. trade partners at 10%, with a significantly higher rate on China.

On Wednesday, the President said in a social media post he was raising the tariffs imposed on imports from China to 125% “effective immediately” due to the “lack of respect that China has shown to the World’s Markets.” That comes on top of a 20% fentanyl-related tariff that the Trump administration previously imposed on China, bringing the total effective U.S. tariff rate on Chinese imports to a whopping 145%, a White House official confirmed to CNBC.

China earlier Wednesday said it would increase its tariff rate for imports from the U.S. to 84%.

Some American businesses are already responding by raising their prices.

Dame, a sexual wellness brand, is putting what it calls a “Trump tariff surcharge” of $5 on all of its vibrators, which it imports from China. The fee won’t cover the increased cost of manufacturing, Dame CEO Alexandra Fine told CNBC Make It. But it will signal to consumers that businesses like Dame are being affected, she says.

“So we’ve made the tough call to adjust prices to be able to keep bringing you the quality, body-safe products you love,” Dame captioned an Instagram post about the surcharge. “We’re adding $5 for now—which doesn’t cover the full cost as we hate to put the brunt of this on you—while we figure out what to do next.”

“I want people to understand how it impacts us,” Fine says. “We are renegotiating again with our manufacturers. We are adjusting our logistics. We are changing our inventory.”

Due to the rapid changes in tariff rates on China, Fine says Dame has had to go back to its manufacturer a few times to settle on pricing. At the time of this interview on Wednesday morning, the tariff rate on China was 104%.

Other companies are warning shoppers that price hikes are imminent.

Clothing brand Miista sent an email on Wednesday saying the then-additional 20% tariff on European goods would raise the company’s costs and likely affect shoppers starting in May. The company said it would try its best to increase consumer prices as little as possible.

Brooklyn-based handbag retailer Hyer Goods announced on April 3 that its Italian-made products would cost 20% more starting April 15. “Raising prices is never something we want to do, but with these new tariffs, it has become unavoidable,” a statement said.

The EU was hit with 20% tariffs when Washington issued what it called “reciprocal” duties on trade partners on April 2. The levy has been reduced to 10% for 90 days following Trump’s Wednesday announcement.

Changing tariff rates have made it hard for Dame to “commit to a price,” Fine says. And retailers like Target and Walmart, which carry Dame vibrators, ask for 60 to 90 days notice of a price change, she says.

The amount of labor that goes into renegotiating prices for each store is also costly, Fine explains, since a price that makes sense today might not make sense tomorrow.

“Ideally, I try not to do work that might not be relevant in two weeks, but it’s not possible right now so we are just trying to stay agile and ahead of it and make decisions,” she says. “It is so much paperwork.”

For now, shoppers purchasing Dame vibrators can expect to pay an extra $5, a price increase of 3% to 5% depending on the product, but Fine says she doesn’t know how changing tariffs will affect her business.

“One thing all entrepreneurs know is the stability of the future is always an illusion,” Fine says. “You plan based on the knowledge you have.”

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