I frequently have to remind myself of the old parental axiom "it's not bad , it's just different " whenever I think about rising-rate environments.

You can always catch a little funk in someone's voice when they discuss Federal Reserve interest-rate hikes. That's in part because stocks often throw short-term tantrums in response to climbing rates. Not to mention, rising rates make mortgages, auto loans, credit cards and other lending products — and thus the goods they're used to purchase — more expensive.

Yet there's a wealth of data that shows stocks can be plenty productive no matter rates' direction. While Fed cuts help ease lending costs for corporations and help spark big-ticket consumer spending, hikes are often a response to a hot economy in which demand is usually expanding and corporate earnings are usually rising.

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