“What are y’all telling your clients now that the Dow is below 8,000?”

  At 11:00, I told my client that with his disability claim, it is crucial that everything in his claim be crystal clear that he is a litigator and not an attorney.   At 1:00, I told my very risk adverse client why we wanted to put the $400,000 from his non-spouse inherited IRA into a SPIA and why it would make sense to then use the SPIA payout to fund a 10 pay life policy.    At 3:00 today, I told my newly married couple who are capable of maxing out and putting $38,000 into their 401(k) for 2009 to only put away $29,000 and put the balance into a whole life policy.  I tried to talk to them about their accounts going down.  They didn't want to talk about it.  They said they understood and since it was going to be 20 years until they needed the money, it didn't matter.   At 7:00 tonight, I talked to my PT Practice owner about how that the market going down absolutely sucks for people who are close to retirement and needed substantial growth to reach their goals, but the market going down is the best thing that can happen for anyone in the accumulation phase of life.  I told him to not do anything differently, but be prepared for a bumpy ride and it's very possible that his account will go down further.