In case you may have already forgotten, 2025 delivered no shortage of dreadful news. In April, the US stock market suffered a sharp downturn, triggered by tariff driven trade tensions. The S&P 500 and NASDAQ composite declined roughly 20% from their respective peaks. Market leaders such as NVIDIA and Apple dropped more than 30% in only a few weeks amid heightened volatility. The war in Ukraine worsened, with combined fatalities and injuries estimated now having surpassed one million. The death toll in Gaza since October 2023 climbed to more than 70,000. Despite a drop in U.S. murder rates, global violent fatalities increased 23% as armed conflicts spread and institutions frayed. The U.S., Russia and China all expanded nuclear weapons testing and strategic capabilities, even as the New START Treaty between the U.S. and Russia is set to expire next month. Layered on top were mounting concerns over global debt levels, fragile supply chains, overstretched stock prices, an AI bubble, renewed inflationary pressures, signs of stagflation and the ever-looming prospect of a U.S. recession.

And yet, the fact that most investors remember is that their 401(k)s increased last year. How could the S&P 500 increase 16% while the world seemed – at least at times – to be going to hell?

Because the world didn’t go to hell – at least not In ways that ultimately mattered to the stock market the primary driver of long-term (and sometimes short-term) stock price changes is earnings. And despite the geopolitical, social and cultural turmoil, corporate earnings in the U.S. (as measured by the S&P 500 companies) increased 13% in 2025 – pretty darn close to the market’s overall gain.

Human nature doesn’t help us much when it comes to investing.

People tend to focus on things they understand, rather than what’s most relevant. It is much easier to form strong opinions about politicians, wars, and headlines than it is to calmly assess corporate profit growth.

People also tend to give more credence to whatever happened most recently – which partially explains why you may have forgotten that the “stock market was crashing” last April.

And finally, while patience is certainly a virtue in investing, It is not especially encouraged anywhere in modern culture. The only people I’ve ever known who became wealthy from investing did so slowly, by letting compounding do its work – and while there are plenty of those folks, they are in a decided minority.

David Moon is president of Moon Capital Management. A version of this piece originally appeared in the USA TODAY NETWORK.