7 Ways You Can Still Retire During a Recession

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Get advice. It's painful to watch retirement account balances dwindle every month. Many workers approaching retirement age are looking for reassurance about their investment strategy. One-on-one advice consultations via phone jumped by 40 percent from September to October at Charles Schwab, a company with 1.3 million corporate retirement plan participants. A financial planner who is not trying to sell you something can help put market gyrations into perspective and keep your retirement plans on track. "Have regular meetings with your adviser, maybe every 30 or 60 or 90 days," advises Averill. "There's a lot of anxiety and uncertainty to reassess."

Stick to the plan. Once you've set up an asset allocation with a level of risk you can tolerate, you need to put your retirement savings and withdrawal strategy on autopilot. Some 68 percent of Americans have not changed the way they save, invest, or manage their retirement assets in the past three months, Bank of America found. "Watchful waiting, no matter how deeply your portfolio dips, is still the best option," says Michael Kresh, a certified financial planner and the author of You Can Afford to Retire, with one caveat:. "After 70, you should always have three to five years of living money in highly liquid and stable short-term accounts." This plan will protect retirees from any additional stock market shocks in the future.