TIMES LIKE THESE test the mettle of investors. Want to pass the test? Here are 27 things to do now:

Keep buying stocks. Remember your regret at failing to load up on bargain-priced shares in early 2009? Don’t make that mistake again.
If you’re panicked and tempted to dump stocks, talk to a friend or, alternatively, hire a financial advisor—one required to act as a fiduciary—to coach you through this decline.
Ponder what makes you happy.

AS OF YESTERDAY’S market close, the S&P 500 was down 25% from year-end 2019 and off 29% from Feb. 19’s all-time high. Worse yet, interest rates are near zero, with the 10-year Treasury note yielding a paltry 1.15%. In a few short weeks, the markets have turned from euphoric to disastrous—and there seems to be no end in sight.
At age 43, I consider myself fairly young. But as I watch the markets, what’s been most surprising to me is how many times I’ve seen this situation before.

WE LOVE TO procrastinate. Have you done your taxes yet? IRS data show that nearly a quarter of Americans wait until the last two weeks of tax season to file. It often feels like that nagging task that grows more arduous each year, though the result for many is a juicy refund.
The average federal tax refund is more than $2,800, so it can pay to get your taxes done sooner rather than later.

AS THE STOCK MARKET repeatedly hit new highs in recent years, my net worth reached levels I hadn’t expected. But instead of feeling good about it, I was getting annoyed. Most of my retirement dollars had been invested over the past decade at high stock market valuations. I could use a good bear market so that, in my few remaining years in the workforce, I bought stocks cheap.
I also worried that a prolonged downturn at the worst possible time might derail my early retirement plans.

WHEN I WENT TO THE grocery store last week, it was packed with customers stocking up on essentials. Carts were filled with items that people couldn’t possibly consume in any reasonable period of time. It’s a scene that’s been repeated across the country.
A friend told me: “When people panic, they want things right away. When people see other people panic, they panic, too.” Like the coronavirus, fear is highly contagious.
I’m not panicking,

“WHAT CHANGES HAVE you made to your portfolio during this market decline?” That was the article request I received from HumbleDollar’s editor. Initially, I had reservations about taking on the assignment, afraid that my story would be misinterpreted as giving financial advice. What follows isn’t financial advice, but rather a highly personal account of one investor’s approach.
I’ve been quite cautious for the past few years. Written into my investment policy statement is Benjamin Graham’s advice to have between 25% and 75% of one’s portfolio in stocks.

WHAT IN THE WORLD is happening in the stock market? The short answer: Investors are spooked by a supply and demand conundrum. Markets react very negatively to a significant disruption of either.
After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, stock markets plummeted because of a disruption in demand. In the weeks and months that followed 9/11, factories, businesses and services remained open and operating all over the world. The issue wasn’t a lack of supply.

LAST FRIDAY AT 7:16 A.M., I sent an email to HumbleDollar’s editor. We were discussing what this blog post should be about. This was before I got the news alert that S&P 500 futures were up bigtime, following the historic selloff the day before.
I concluded my email to Jonathan this way: “The market never gives you the big fat target you want. I’ve got great plans if the market behaves today like it did yesterday,

FOLLOWING THE STOCK market’s steep decline, sensible investors are faced with three alternatives. The first two are fairly straightforward, but the third option is worth some discussion.
1. Do nothing. If all of your assets are in retirement accounts and you’re comfortable with your risk level, you might choose to tune out the news and do nothing at all. Similarly, if your portfolio doesn’t include any stock market investments, you might opt to watch the market upheaval from a distance,

I DON’T KNOW WHEN the coronavirus will stop spreading, when we’ll have a vaccine and how much the economy will slow. I also don’t know at what level the stock market and interest rates will hit bottom—or whether we’ve already seen the worst. And nobody else does, either. But that doesn’t mean we should all just sit on our (frequently washed) hands.
While we don’t know how bad things will get, we’ve seen this movie before.

WHILE JIM AND I cooked dinner the other night, we talked about the old cars we drove when we were younger—and how they tended to pull to one side if we took our hands off the steering wheel. We humans have a similar tendency: We head in one direction unless we make a conscious effort to be more rational.
That brings me to the coronavirus and accompanying stock market plunge. We all have gut reactions to news like this.

I WRITE THIS FROM somewhere in the Atlantic. We’re headed toward the Falkland Islands, where we’ll apparently see penguins. My wife and I booked this cruise months ago. Since then, of course, we’ve been told repeatedly that being on a ship for 30 days with mostly 60- to 80-somethings is not the best idea. Who knew?
There was a time when getting away meant little connection to the outside world. No more.

WHEN YOU SEE an advertisement, you expect some hype. Ads for investment newsletters are, alas, no exception.
Sometimes, you hear about their unique investment process or how the newsletter regularly beats the market. Some offer one-sentence testimonials from happy subscribers. The message: You, too, can enjoy the benefits of their secret methodologies for a low, low price.
Yes, the ads are undoubtedly compelling. But you need to separate the hype from reality. Fortunately, Hulbert Financial Digest does just that—by tracking the performance of investment newsletters.

IS THE STOCK MARKET swoon messing with your head? You don’t want to make this market decline any worse than it has to be. To that end, here are 10 steps that’ll help preserve your sanity and your portfolio:

Avoid touching both your face and leveraged exchange-traded index funds.
Change the password on your investment accounts to “ItsTooLateToSell.”
Downgrade your opinion of investors based on their degree of hysteria.
Don’t watch Contagion,

RETIREMENT ISN’T JUST about reaching some magic savings number. You also need a strategy for turning that pile of savings into a reliable stream of retirement income that’ll last for the rest of your life.
In academic lingo, it’s about changing from accumulation to decumulation—and it’s a topic that my husband Jim and I grapple with, as we figure out how best to cover our retirement expenses. There are three common strategies:
Systematic withdrawals.