The Baby Boomers Retirement Blog

Yes, that’s the first rule when making decisions about your pension and retirement investments. Don’t ever panic!

Acting under the pressure of fear, anxiety and other emotional factors… will always result in bad decisions. Knee jerk reactions have no place when you make a decision that could affect your long term wealth.

I am aware that the media is bombarding you, and everybody else, with horror stories about the market meltdown and the looming economic catastrophe. Just say NO to all of them. The “news factories” are not reporting the news: they create the horror news to attract more viewers, readers, visitors. They indulge in these ‘crisis’ times. If you buy into their frenzy — you are feeding them to produce more horror stories.

We all need to take a few moments and try to think clearly, asking the most basic questions:

• How many years do I have until my retirement?
• Have I seen market ups and downs before in my life?
• Does the market volatility today affect my financial well-being in ten years from now?

When my wife asked me what should we do about our pension investments, I told her: “Now we will buy more…” — while working hard on my upcoming Pension Manual. It is worth to buy more because the prices are low.

Of course, all the usual advices are valid: don’t put all your eggs in one basket, in other words diversify your investments. I am always a big fan of the mutual investment funds because they already provide a diversification and other advantages. Consult a professional to determine your “investor profile”. Be consistent.

Finally, since I am sure you already have read my Pension Report, stay tuned for the coming Pension Manual to learn how to make yourself independent of the present market craziness.

About the author

Istvan Horvath is an author, blogger, former journalist, a passionate advocate of the Baby Boomers, and the founder of DigitalPensionCom. He is writing extensively about the Baby Boomers' retirement and pension issues. His Pension Report is an eye-opener. Visit his Baby Boomer Pension Blog for more articles. This article can be reprinted or republished provided the content and links are left intact, and the "about the author" section is included.