“Buy low. Sell high.” That’s the stock market motto. But what are you supposed to do in between the buying and the selling? Since there’s no motto for the best way to handle the ups and downs of your investments, let’s take a look at a few ways you can hang on to your long-term security in a falling market:

1. Less is More. The lower the price of the stock, the more shares you can buy — which means you’ll have more money in your stock fund once the market spikes again. Makes sense, right? Suze Orman puts it like this: For example, let’s say you are contributing $500 a month to a stock fund. If a share of that fund costs $25 you can buy 20 shares. But if the share price falls to $20, your $500 now buys you 25 shares. Let’s jump ahead 10 years. The share price is now $55. If you owned 20 shares you would have $1,100. If you owned 25 shares you would have $1,375. When time is on your side, a down market is a great chance to “buy low.”

2. Stay in the zone – the long-term zone. It’s tempting to want dump your stocks when the numbers are down and move your money into short-term bonds, but the fact is those bonds aren’t strong enough to keep up with inflation. What that means is that if you’re planning on using the money from your CDs during your retirement years, you would still need another source of income to cover what inflation doesn’t just to get by. Resist the temptation to sell low in this situation and hold out for the market to make that upward swing again.

3. Write off your losses. If you have any taxable accounts (which include individual and joint investment accounts and money market mutual funds), selling the ones you’ve had for at least a year that are losing money can actually save you money: those can be claimed as long-term capital losses on your tax return. Short-term losses (any assets you’ve had less than a year) first have to be applied to offset any short-term gains (which are taxed at regular income tax rates).

As you can see, when it comes to the stock market, taxes and knowing how to best keep your goals on target, it can be a tedious and eye-crossing learning curve. Click here to set up a time for us to show you how we can help eliminate any stress when it comes to your bookkeeping and financial needs and strategies.