If you're not used to turbulence on a plane, it can make you nervous.

Yet the pilot and crew - after telling you to stay seated and fasten your seatbelt - usually maintain a course so you can reach your destination. That's the lesson for investors. One of the bitter truths of investing is that stocks and bonds don't always go up. In fact, as we saw in 2022, sometimes that decline can be quite dramatic. When you're facing bouts of market jitters, it's important not to focus on the day-to-day fluctuations, but on your long-term investment goals. Of course, no one likes to see their hard-earned savings dwindle, so investors often ask, "How do I handle market downturns?" And "Should I sell stocks when markets are volatile?" That's why it can be so hard to accept the fact that during market sell-offs, the best course of action is often to do nothing. In tough times, we want to limit our losses. And when things are going well, we regret not investing more. We're all afraid of losing money. But in investing, giving in to fear is often the worst strategy. Investors with this mindset most often tend to buy high and sell low because they invest more in a rising market and withdraw money in a falling market.

This chart illustrates that riding the rise and fall of a market can be an emotional roller coaster. Investors can get excited and overconfident when markets rise sharply, leading them to make mistaken purchases. On the other hand, they can be nervous and panicked when markets fall, leading them to sell at low prices.

Focus on your long-term goals. Still, it can sometimes make sense to adjust your portfolio if conditions seem to indicate that you won't reach your goal if the markets have changed. For example, in today's high inflation environment, you may need additional inflation resilience. Or you may need to additionally reduce risk by adding other asset classes to your portfolio, such as gold, commodities or anti-inflation bonds. Such changes to your portfolio can actually help strengthen it for the longer term. In short, cosmetic adjustments to your portfolio can make sense. But trying to time the market to avoid sell-offs is extremely difficult because of the risk of missing the recovery. Instead, focus on your long-term investment goals.