How can the US be surprised?

[steven lloyd]

It's impossible to "lose it all" with mutual funds. You can take a hit, but in the long run they always recover and go up.Smart thing to do would be do the complete opposite and buy at a discount price. I did so two years ago, and saw some good returns once hysteria died down and funds went back to where it made sense.

This is a great time to be buying mutual funds. I`d suggest diversifying between at least RRSP and TFSA accounts. There are other opportunities as well if you have an established investment base and some extra money for investments that carry additional investigation and risks. Perhaps not a prudent course if you don`t have the time to monitor your investments on a daily basis.

What if you haven't got time left in ya to make it up? What if you need the money, say, in 3 or 6 months from now if that was the date you were planning to retire and they hadn't recovered yet?

Then you wait before you roll your funds over into a RRIF and draw from your funds sparingly to minimize the tax impact and keep as many unit values as possible. Wait to retire. Pick up some temporary employment to assist until prices turn around (which they always have historically).