Canadians – don’t panic, think long-term

After staying fairly stable for much of the Wall Street crisis, my RSP funds have suffered staggering losses this week as people panic and bail out of the markets. Depending on what you’ve invested in, that may be a good idea, but probably not. My former financial advisor gave me no end of grief about my refusal to invest a nickel in the States, but my plan has worked out much better than his.

Yahoo News says today that “Canada has the world’s soundest banking system, closely followed by Sweden, Luxembourg and Australia, a survey by the World Economic Forum has found as financial crisis and bank failures shake world markets.” To read the full article, click here. The message is “don’t panic – this is the time to settle back and think long-term”.

[Edit: the graph below shows what happened with the Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 from May 2008 to June 2009]