Nervous about the stock market? Turn off the TV

Robert Powell has some advice for those nervously watching the stock tickers stream across the television: Turn it off.

Powell is the editor of Retirement Weekly, a Marketwatch-Dow Jones publication, and he wants people to know that listening to cable news anchors repeat market losses will not help, and can even hurt.

Television coverage of the stock market, Powell told MPR News host Kerri Miller, "plays into your emotions. What you want investing to be is not emotional. You want it to be rational and rules-based."

"If you watch television, one of the things that will happen to you is that your emotions will get the better of you. You'll start to think: 'Oh my god, I'll never have enough money to retire, I'm losing everything I've ever saved.' Then you'll start to act irrationally."

Powell joined Miller to share his tips for handling market volatility.

Your investment plan should be appropriate for your age

Younger investors, with a longer time until retirement, can afford to be more heavily invested in stocks than older investors can. Younger investors have time for assets to recover.

Powell advised checking your investment plan and making sure that plan matches your life stage. A quick rule of thumb, Powell said, is to subtract your age from 100. The remaining number is the percentage of your assets you can invest in stocks rather than more conservative bonds.

If you're 50, for example, half of your investment assets can be in stocks and half in bonds.

Take a reality check

"One of the things that we know from behavior finance or behavior economics is that losses hurt twice as much as gains do," Powell said. With the market down nearly 400 points, "emotionally it feels like it's down 800 points."

"We know that your mind is playing tricks on you. You want to check your psyche at the door one this one, and then go back and look at your plan."

If you're young, this is an opportunity

For younger investors, this won't be the last time you watch the stock market drop.

"You'll experience probably three or four bear markets over the course of a 50-year period," Powell said. "For those folks in their 20s or 30s, you should look at this as a buying opportunity. These stocks are on sale, as many advisers like to say in times like this."

If you can't handle the heat...

"If nothing else, people should always remember that stocks are risky in the short-term, in the long-term, in the mid-term. They never stop getting risky no matter what age you're investing at," Powell said.

If the market volatility is too stressful for you, Powell said you can always readjust your asset allocation for a different "sleep at night" portfolio.