10 Smart Things To Do Right Now — Instead Of Panicking About The Dow’s Plunge Or Coronavirus
10 Smart Things To Do Right Now — Instead Of Panicking About The Dow’s Plunge Or Coronavirus
Published: March 9, 2020 at 4:46 p.m. ET By Elisabeth Buchwald
‘Freaking out doesn’t help.’ 10 smart things to do right now — instead of panicking about the Dow’s plunge or coronavirus
Worried about COVID-19 and the plunge in the stock market? There are healthy actions you can take
Instead of throwing yourself into a rabbit-hole of panic and anxiety, here are 10 ways to regain your sense of control. MarketWatch photo illustration/iStockphoto
First off, remember to breathe.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -7.78% and S&P 500 Index SPX, -7.59% plunged Monday, causing trading to be temporarily halted, as traders digested news of a possible oil price war between OPEC and Russia. The news did not come at a good time, which may be an understatement, given how rocky the markets have been in recent weeks on the back of the seemingly unstoppable, silent spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.
Rather than freaking out about the market’s rollercoaster ride, there are several steps you can take to improve your physical and financial health.
Hyper-ventilating about every rise and dip isn’t time well spent, experts said. Rather than freaking out about the market’s rollercoaster ride or the COVID-19 epidemic, there are several steps you can take to improve your emotional, physical and financial health. The World Health Organization has a set of recommendations for how to deal with stress stemming from the virus.
WHO recommends people limit the amount of time “you and your family spend watching or listening to media coverage that you perceive as upsetting.” It also recommends gathering information about the virus from a credible source like the WHO or a local public health agency. Financial advisers say the same is true for those who are worried about their 401(k) or their investments in their favorite stocks, whether it’s AAPL, -7.90% Google GOOG, -6.38%, Tesla TSLA, -13.57% or Facebook FB, -6.40%.
“Freaking out doesn’t help you stay healthy,” said Catherine Belling, a professor at Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, who studies the role of fear and anxiety in health care “It just makes you feel really bad and keeps you from doing the rational things that actually might help you stay healthy.” Instead of throwing yourself into a rabbit-hole of panic and anxiety, here are 10 ways to regain your sense of control.
1. Distract yourself from alarming headlines
If you’re a relatively young, long-term investor, don’t even look at your account balance It is too difficult at this point to predict the market’s levels years into the future, when young investors will be cashing out accounts such as their 401(k)s. Money that people are saving for short-term goals shouldn’t be invested in the market.
So instead of obsessively checking account balances, working out or socializing with friends can be more beneficial, she said Exercise has even been linked to financial health; a 2016 study from the American Heart Association found that individuals who exercised moderately paid about $2,500 less in annual health care expenses related to heart disease than those who did not exercise
Better yet: Do a job you can earn money for, like babysitting, dog walking or signing up for an app like TaskRabbit Extra money can go toward debt or savings. Just don’t distract yourself through “retail therapy”: Anxiety is linked to making financially risky decisions And shopping to relieve stress and anxiety can leave you in a worse financial state than before.
2. Take time to evaluate your budget
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