The effects of the current stock market downturns on retirement plans and/or retirement planning.?

I want to know what you guys think about this topic

Public Comments

1. it sucks many will have to postpone retirements for no other reason than to ride out the market
2. Stock markets are exceptionally volatile as of now and extremely unpredictable. It would be best to make retirements plans irrespective of the stock markets or at least not so much directly affected by them. The retirement plans need to safe enough in spite of the market volatility.you could opt to invest in some of the rather secured like Government bonds, Precious metal and real estate etc. The last two would require heavy investment but will be worth every penny.
3. One of my co-workers who has worked in her present job for more than 30 years had been planning to retire in February. But she just retracted her retirement letter after having been advised that her retirement portfolio no longer had enough value to support her anticipated retirement at this time. She is understandably bitter about it. After 30 years of hard work and saving and looking forward to being able to retire, now she figures she will have to work another 3-5 years before she will be able to retire. It could be worse; at least she still has a job, that she is very good at by the way. And at least she has the opportunity to recover. I think it is worse for those who already retired and can't return to their old jobs, who now are stuck with declining retirement portfolios. I, on the other hand, don't plan to retire for another 15 years, so if anything, this stock market downturn is probably going to benefit me. I have increased my retirement contributions to the max I can possibly set aside, figuring that I'm buying stock at discount prices while the market is down. When the stock market rebounds, the stocks I'm buying now will go up in value more than the average increase in value of the stocks I've acquired over my working life. So I basically agree with Warren Buffet - if you are able to buy, AND won't need to liquidate the assets for a good number of years, this is an excellent time to buy. **EDITED because Y!A "coffee break" chopped off my answer in mid sentence