Fretting over salting away enough cash for retirement against the backdrop of the helter skelter ride, courtesy of the stock market?

Yeah, it’s a thing.

In the dawning days of September, the S&P 500 index of stocks saw almost 24% fly out the window, according to Sandy Wiggins, of ACG Wealth Management in Midlothian, appearing on wtvr.com. Bonds, what’s more, typically, regarded as a safer option than stocks, also hit the skids. Through that month, Bloomberg US Aggregate – the main bond index – kissed away 14.6%.

“It’s a scary time for investors, especially those who have retired or are planning to in the next few years,” Wiggins said, reported wtlocal.com. “However, the key to successful long-term investing is to keep fear from making decisions in such difficult times. Investor psychology is such that greed in good times and fear in bad lead to overreaction and bad decisions.

“First, realize that timing the market is a losing strategy,” Wiggins continued. “By timing the market, we mean moving from stocks to cash or something else conservative with the expectation of going back when things feel better. The best demonstration of the folly of market timing is to examine the impact on returns by staying invested and missing the best return days.”