Welcome to the Jill on Money podcast. It's an emergency bonus episode. Okay, I know, you're freaked out.

Two days of big selling in stocks. What are you to do? We've heard from countless numbers of you.

Here's what you need to think about. This is your investor panic prevention plan.

Remind yourself why you are investing. Most of us are saving for a long-term goal like retirement,

and that's probably decades in the future. As a matter of fact, if you are putting money into

a retirement account, you should be psyched because you're buying at levels that are far below where they were just days ago.

Do you need cash from this account?

Do you need to make a house down payment?

Do you need to purchase a card?

Do you have to pay a tuition bill?

Remember, if you need anything like that within the

next 12 months, that money should not be at risk at all. If you blew it, get out, keep the money

set aside. And of course, don't forget, now is a very good time to think about your risk

tolerance. Maybe you thought you could really gut it out. You could

handle the high highs and the low lows. Maybe you're finding that you can't handle the low

lows. How about that? If you want to help yourself feel better about what's going on,

how about you look at this account and figure out how to increase your rate of

return risk-free? That's right, risk-free. How do you do that? Get rid of those investment fees.

Consider replacing an actively managed mutual fund with a no-commission index fund. Can you replace

an advisor who's not doing much for you except investing in funds?

You can do that yourself for a fraction of the cost. And finally, if you thought you could go

it alone, but you really could only go it alone during a big up day, not during a down day,

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