8 Things You NEED to Know Before Retiring During a Crash

Bear markets scare people. But here’s the thing—they’re totally normal. Since 1928, we’ve had 27 of them. The good news? We’ve also had 28 bull markets, and they stick around way longer (avg 2.7 years vs 9.6 months for bears).

The biggest mistake people make? Panic selling. Sounds dramatic, but 42% of the S&P 500’s best days happened during bear markets. Miss those days and your returns get crushed. Research shows if you’d skipped just the 10 best trading days over the past 30 years, your gains would be cut in half. Skip 30 days? You lose 83% of your returns.

Can you predict it? Nope. No one can time the market—don’t even try.

Does a crash mean recession? Not necessarily. Only 15 out of 27 bear markets since 1928 came with recessions.

How to survive it? Build a cash buffer. When prices drop, you need to sell more shares to get the same cash. If you have a separate fund to draw from, your portfolio stays invested and ready to bounce back when the market recovers.

The reality? If you invest for 50 years, expect roughly 14 bear markets—and at least 14 bull markets to follow. This won’t be your last rodeo.