As I write, the Dow is down about 500 points. Lehman Brothers is toast, Bank of America is buying Merrill Lynch and everyone’s worried about AIG, the insurance giant. The fallout from the mortgage mess and the credit crisis continues to spread; the pundits are in a frenzy of pontificating about what may happen next.

And you know what? Nobody really knows.

I have no idea if the worst is over or yet to be. Neither does anyone else. But that’s no reason to stuff our money in our mattresses and wait for the end of the world.

Unless you’re planning to retire in the next few years, all of this is just noise. What matters is what will happen in the decades to come, and historically stocks have performed better than any other investment.

So I’m staying the course. My own retirement accounts (and those of my husband) are well-diversified, so we’re continuing to invest just as we always have.

If you are planning to retire soon, or you really feel like you have to do something rather than wait it out, then get yourself to a fee-only financial planner for customized advice. You can get referrals from the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors or the Garrett Planning Network. You’re far better off getting objective, personalized advice than you are going off half-cocked and messing up your future.

TAGS: financial planning, Investing, stocks

Watching our portfolios slide in value is never fun, and this time around we have the double whammy of knowing our home prices are down as well. I’ve offered some suggestions on my Web site about how to keep from panicking, including turning off the doom-and-gloom commentary and tucking away a bit more cash as a safety net.

Most of the surveys I’ve seen on the topic suggest that women, when they invest, are better investors than men because we trade less often, are less likely to be “overconfident” and more likely to learn from our mistakes. But too many women shun the risk of the stock market because of times like these and deprive themselves of the superior long-term returns only stocks can give.

We shouldn’t let the day-to-day noise of the markets scare us out. If you have an investing plan, stick to it; if you don’t, get one. FinancialEngines.com can help do-it-yourselfers create a retirement portfolio, or you can hire a fee-only planner from NAPFA.org or GarrettPlanningNetwork.com.

TAGS: financial planning, investments, market turmoil, stocks, women and investing