Financial markets are experiencing volatility due to concerns over rising costs, potential retaliatory tariffs, and broader economic slowdown.

Whether you're a seasoned investor or just starting out, knowing what to do when your stocks are down can make the difference between panic-driven mistakes and smart, calculated moves.

When preparing for retirement, there are many recommendations about how much money to save and where to save it. But many people feel lost as to how to withdraw their funds.

There are plenty of stories of people outliving their retirement savings, especially if they live long past their life expectancy. One way to make ends meet at that point is to sell your home or take equity out of it.

The number of funds you should own is going to depend on your investment goals, risk tolerance, and portfolio diversification strategy.

The amount of risk you can take in retirement depends heavily on your retirement income vs. your expenses. There is no one size fits all approach.

Determining what your asset allocation really should look like depends on a lot of different factors that the 100 minus age rule shortcut can't tell you.

Good portfolio tracking software should also show you the fees you pay for funds you own, performance history, historical balances, and historical transactions across accounts.

Be careful using rules of thumb for your asset allocation. Dialing down your exposure to stock market volatility as you get older still makes sense, but possibly not to the degree you expect.

To the degree you can stand it, you should usually be as aggressive as possible with your 401(k) allocation, and your investments generally. The longer your time horizon to use the money, the more aggressive you should be.

Inflation is raging and many investors don't know what to do. There are are a few investments that willl serve as a good hedge against rising inflation.

We've got nothing to add to the GameStop saga--what happened and why, its David-vs-Goliath narrative (only half true), what more should be done to protect individual investors from themselves (if anything).

Taking too much risk in retirement can lead to major problems when the market has a severe downturn. Not taking enough risk when young means leaving a lot of money on the table.

Hindsight may be telling us we should have sold in March. Don't listen.

Markets are showing a pattern of extreme calm followed by periods of extreme volatility. The last 30 years of stock market performance do not appear to be normally distributed. It is very important to be able to run scenarios on severe market downturns to stress test your investments and retirement plan.

Taking some risks with your portfolio can lead to higher returns over time. Over time" is important; in the short run, high risk can do damage to a portfolio--and a retirement plan. Emerging markets investments have a place in most portfolios. The question is how much.

High fees can take a big bite out of your investments. Index funds, with low fees and passive management, normally outperform their more expensive, actively managed peers over time. It's a good idea to review your investments on an annual basis to make sure fees are reasonable and asset class balances are where you want them.

The main reason that treasuries do well when stocks don’t is that the market usually predicts that the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates to fight off a recession or an impending recession. Another reason is what is called “flight to safety”, which means a lot of investors are moving their money out of stocks and into less volatile, much safer treasury bonds.

If you don’t take enough risk when you’re young, you might not be able to retire when you want.. If you take too much risk when you’re older, you can be hurt badly by a serious market downturn. Diversification still works and is most important when you’re older.

Most of us have read about the benefits of diversifying our investments. The key benefit, in theory, is that when some assets decline, others will go up at least partially reducing the pain of a serious market downturn.