ONE OF THE MOST important investment decisions you will ever make is not whether to retire but when you chose to do it. Every American looks forward to the day when they can trade the 9-to-5 grind for a little bit of well-deserved rest and relaxation. But the easiest way to erase decades of smart saving - picking the right funds, contributing the right amounts - is to start taking big withdrawals at the wrong time, especially if the stock market is in the midst of a prolonged slump.

By tapping an account during a down period, investors run the risk of eating into years of valuable retirement income that they may never be able to regain. They may have the money today but as the typical American starts to live well into their 80s they may not have that money down the road. This is particularly important now, as many market experts think that despite record highs in the stock market we will soon see a correction. Luckily, there are some easy steps you can take, like getting a handle on what financial pros call your investment horizon, to help you insulate yourself from this problem well in advance of it happening.

And what a problem it is. Moshe Milevsky, an associate professor of finance at York University, recently presented a retirement conference audience with two identical $100,000 portfolios whose owners, he said, would remove $9,000 from their balances every year. Despite having similar average annual returns and standard deviations over the long haul, one portfolio started with a three-year average return of -5.6% while the other enjoyed a 22.1% average annual return during the same time period. After the first three years the portfolios ran through similar market swings.

Milevsky found the first portfolio, the one experiencing negative returns right out of the gate, lasted just 15 years into retirement while the second portfolio still had

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Federal Reserve approved a half-percentage point cut in its discount rate on loans to banks Friday, a dramatic move designed to stabilize financial markets roiled by a widening credit crisis.

The action sent stocks soaring, with the Dow Jones industrial average up more than 300 points right after the opening bell. The blue chip index finished the day up 233.30 points at 13,079.08.

The decision means that the discount rate, the interest rate the Fed charges to make direct loans to banks, will be lowered from 6.25 percent down to 5.75 percent.

The Fed did not change its target for the more important federal funds rate, which has remained at 5.25 percent for more than a year, but it sent a strong signal in the wording of its statement that it was prepared to cut that rate as well.

It did that by dropping any reference to inflation, which was the worry that previously had kept it from cutting the federal

"A bank is a place where they lend you an umbrella in fair weather and ask for it back when it begins to rain."

Robert Frost could well have been talking about the current state of the financial markets when he penned this quotation. Even with all the information--and disinformation--swirling around the current financial market panic, it is possible to boil the problems down to one essential element: credit. The vast majority of financial companies need it, and right now, it is hard to come by. No one wants to lend money to a borrower (be it a company or individual) that might not pay it back. So many lenders have cut off riskier borrowers or closed their doors altogether. This had been feeding on itself in a type of vicious cycle that has hurt financial companies very broadly.

But we are fundamentally optimistic about the long-term health of the financial-services industry. We believe the current market storm will serve to winnow out weaker companies and more speculative investors and that the strong and well-run will survive. So investors with a long time horizon can ride out the current storm. We also believe that there are some adamantine backstops that should arrest any panic before it could destroy the financial system. Therefore, we have put our highest recommendation, 5 stars, on more than 50 financial-services companies. Many of these stocks have been victims of the credit crunch. We feel that the market is handing investors some fantastic values at today's prices and that long-term investors who can tolerate the current level of risk should reap handsome