By PHYLLIS ZORN

Staff writer

Workers need to decide when to retire, and the state of their retirement savings can influence their decision.

Investments are always volatile, but 2022 brought extra volatility. Many people saw the value of their retirement accounts drop.

According to financial adviser Chris Hernandez at Edward Jones in Marion, longstanding advice for retirement savings still is valid: Have a diversified portfolio and keep in mind that the value of investments tends to rise.

“We advise clients to have the long view,” Hernandez said. “Micromanaging investments, especially in the short term, is not a good idea.”

An investor’s gut may be great for telling them when to eat but not when to change investments, he said.

Even when inflation is at bay, investments are going to go up, he said.

Still, he’s hearing from worried clients.

“Right now, there’s a lot of uneasiness out there,” he said. “We try to listen to them.”

When a client says he or she is losing sleep, Hernandez tries to think about how to invest so they are not worried.

“I do think volatility is here to stay,” he said. “There are a lot of things going on in the world today.”

Hernandez supports the Federal Reserve increasing interest rates to curb inflation.

Even during a recession in the 1970s and 1980s, when inflation spiked and interest rates soared, people who left their investments where they were saw an increase of 19% over a decade, he said.