2022 was a tough year for retirement investors.

Unless all your retirement funds were in money markets or stable value accounts, there was no place to hide. Even then, if you took your money out of the markets, you still lost ground to inflation.

Interest rate hikes, sticky inflation, the war in Ukraine, Covid, and volatile economic data all contributed to investment woes. All major indexes were down. The Dow was off 8.78%, the S&P down 19.44%, and the NASDAQ lost 33.10%.

So, you put your money in bonds as a safe haven. Well, that didn’t work either as the Morningstar U.S. Core Bond Index—which reflects a broad cross section of the government and investment-grade corporate bond market—lost 12.9% in 2022. Ugh!

Despite the year’s losses, the Dow and S&P were actually up in the fourth quarter. Could this be a sign of a turn-around? I don’t know and beware of anyone that tells you that they do know. There could be more pain ahead, but the market may go straight up from here as well. So, as a retirement investor, what do you do now?

· Keep investing and continue to plow money into your retirement accounts. Frankly, you should never stop doing this. And there’s no better time than after the markets fall.

· Review your asset allocation (mix of stocks, bonds, and cash) and verify that it is still positioned correctly for your long-term goals.

· If you took your money out of the market, you should consider easing it back in. Spread it over the next 6 months.

· Utilize Roth accounts if you are currently not using them.

· Pay down expensive debt that doesn’t provide you with long-term value, like credit cards. And stay out of this debt in the future.

· Lastly, take a deep breath, don’t fixate on what happened in 2022 (it’s in the past), and focus your energy on your health, your family, your friends, and daily activities that give you peace and happiness.

I am approaching 2023 differently. This is a year of giving back for me. To that end, I will be waiving all fees for my retirement planning services for people employed as teachers, health care workers, grocery store workers, first responders, and those working for non-profits. Please pass this on to others that you feel would benefit from this.

Enjoy the Journey.