Trump tariffs whipped up a deluge of financial advice. Here’s how to interpret it.

A troubling question: How best to manage money at this moment of chaos the Trump administration’s embrace of tariffs stirred up?

President Donald Trump has imposed tariffs, then partially un-tariffed, reversed course by re-tariffing and so on (not to mention other nations’ retaliatory tariffs). The economic uncertainty runs deep.

“And so I think that that uncertainty that people are feeling is warranted,” said Neel Kashkari, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, in a conversation on MPR News with Angela Davis. “We feel the same uncertainty at the Fed. We don’t know where this is going to settle out.”

That’s why many people are struggling about how best to manage their money right now. Expert advice ranges from buying stocks on dips to exiting the market altogether to staying the course. A good way to cut through the cacophony is recalling the money-management creed: “Know thyself.”

“This is the main lesson to learn in investing,” wrote Vitaliy Katsenelson, CEO at Investment Management Associates, on LinkedIn. “... Our investment process should amplify your strengths and mitigate your weaknesses.”

What works for someone else could be a bad choice for you. Don’t like researching companies? Steer clear of individual stocks. Did you take extreme actions during earlier stock market tempests? If yes, be more conservative with your money strategies (at least over time).

An apocryphal Wall Street story makes the point: A man wanted to be rich, so he put all his money in stocks. But he would be ruined if stocks crashed. He couldn’t sleep. One day, he sees J.P. Morgan, the legendary financier, taking a walk.

He asks, “Mr. Morgan, I’ve invested all my money in the stock market, and I can’t sleep. I’m a wreck. What should I do?”

Morgan replied, “Sell down to the sleeping point.”

Similarly, I once had a memorable interview with the late Nobel laureate Paul Samuelson. His research informed modern portfolio theory, including the critical role equities play in retirement savings. Yet he emphasized during the interview: Whether you invested in equities depended on your attitude and capacity to absorb risk. His mother was a saver, but mostly in CDs.

“For my late mother,” he said, “her level of risk tolerance called for a very small equity share.”

Among the benefits of knowing oneself — reaching that sleeping point — is managing money in ways that better reflect your temperament and circumstances.

Chris Farrell is senior economics contributor for “Marketplace” and a commentator for Minnesota Public Radio.