 The market goes up and the market goes down. It always has and it always will. But if you are in or near retirement, do you really have time to wait for the market to go through these cycles? Think about it. Having your money invested in the market is like walking up a flight of stairs. But instead of moving up one step at a time, every third step you have to go back down two steps or more. Remember the story about the guy who was sentenced to an eternity of rolling the rock up the hill, only to have it roll back down every time he got close to the top?