If you have 20 years or more, I'd still be tilting heavily toward equities (and particularly toward foreign stocks for the reasons I mention above), and be regularly saving and adding new money to the market.

If you're in between, I'd take a look at my portfolio to make sure I'm comfortable with my asset allocation plans. You have some flexibility when you're 10 years away from retirement, but you want to make sure you have a healthy mix of equity and non-equity investments.

If you're looking for greater detail on the percentages that could be right for you, I'd consider putting the cash in a Target Retirement fund, which will allocate it for you based on your time to retirement, or take a look at how these funds are allocating their assets and then make sure you're not too far off in your own portfolio.

But if this is money you're saving for a retirement that's five or more years away, then I would keep it in the stock market and take advantage of current volatility to upgrade your portfolio. That means adding new money to the market and reallocating your portfolio into the best-priced, strongest names.

But if you are looking to really take advantage of the current crisis, we've been telling our Motley Fool members to start increasing their foreign exposure as high as 50 percent to 70 percent. A host of other financial experts have also come out recently with similar recommendations. And that's because the nature of the global economy is changing. The U.S. is becoming less central to trade and development and countries such as China, India and Brazil are both growing faster and offer important diversification. Remember, if you're a U.S. investor, it's likely that the value of your savings, home, and job are all denominated in U.S. dollars and rely on the health of the U.S. economy. (Note: Hanson does not own shares of VTSMX.)

So, stay stoic with your money and be careful not to let emotion trump your sound long-term, asset-allocation strategy. If you don't have an asset-allocation strategy, now is a very good time to put one in place.

If you're young, that means sticking with the stock market and buying more stocks today. If you're closer to retirement, that means making sure you're protecting your principle by owning something like Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities, or TIPS.

Also, keep in mind that a growing number of troubled borrowers did not contribute to the problem. Some took out traditional fixed-rate loans. But when home prices sank, they suddenly owed more on their mortgages than their homes were worth. They could not refinance if they needed to move for a job or other personal reasons, such as divorce.

If it's any consolation, you still come out ahead of a less-deserving borrower. You have not lost your home and your credit score is intact.

-- Washington Post Staff Writer Dina ElBoghdady

Most lenders require PMI only if a loan exceeds 80 percent of the price of the house. To avoid paying it, about 40 percent of home buyers in the first half of the decade used "piggyback" mortgages. They took out two loans. The first covered 80 percent of the cost of the home, and the second covered the balance, or at least part of it.

With this arrangement, cash-strapped buyers could also avoid making a down payment.

But a lot of these risky piggybacks failed. Borrowers lapsed into foreclosure. And insurers lost their own financial footing when they had to cover the growing losses on those loans. In the first six months of this year, the industry had already paid more than $7 billion to cover claims on those foreclosures and costs related to the claims, according to Inside Mortgage Finance. Their stock also plummeted.

For home buyers, getting these piggyback mortgages is nearly impossible now. That means the chances of securing a no-down payment loan -- and avoiding private mortgage insurance -- have diminished.

-- Washington Post Staff Writer Dina ElBoghdady

The American Financial Services Association this week asked Congress to include finance companies, which include auto lenders and credit card companies, in the list of institutions eligible for the bailout. It also wants auto loans to be included in the definition of the trouble assets that are plaguing Wall Street.

In particular, the group is concerned that financing for auto loans could grind to a halt if those institutions are not included in the plan. Auto lenders resell loans on Wall Street in much the same way that mortgages are resold. Auto delinquencies are low compared with mortgages, but investors in the loans are still wary. That means less liquidity in the market and tighter credit, making it tougher to get a loan. Some observers believe that if the government were to include auto debt in the bailout plan, consumers would have an easier time getting loans to buy cars.

"An auto is such an integral part of the economy," AFSA spokeswoman Lynne Strang said. "People need to have cars to get to their jobs. They need cars to look for employment."

Travis Plunkett, legislative director of the Consumer Federation of America, isn't convinced that such measures are necessary. He said the Bush administration has yet to make the case that car and credit card loans need to be bailed out to ensure stability of the credit markets. Including those debts in the rescue plan would send "a bad message to banks that they could make reckless loans," he said. As for ordinary consumers, Plunkett said, it is unlikely that they would notice a difference whether provisions for credit cards and auto loans were included in the bill or not.

-- Washington Post Staff Writer Ylan Q. Mui

Credit unions have kept about 70 percent of their mortgage loans on the books, meaning that they did not sell them off to other institutions, according to the Credit Union National Association. The group said that less than 1 percent of credit union mortgages were in delinquency at the end of the first quarter. Delinquencies on other loans have edged up to 1 percent.

"If they've got their money in a federally insured credit union, they're just hunky dory," CUNA spokesman Patrick Keefe said.

Still, credit unions are lobbying Congress and the Treasury Department to be included in any legislation that would allow financial institutions to unload bad mortgages. Keefe said few CUNA members would likely need the help, but the group wants to make sure that they have the same options as other lending institutions.

-- Washington Post Staff Writer Ylan Q. Mui

The government's plan aside, it's generally not in the lender's interest to hang on to a foreclosure, said Kurt Eggert, a Chapman University law professor and a former member of the Federal Reserve Board's Consumer Advisory Council. Hiring people to secure, maintain and sell these houses gets expensive.

"Banks are not in the business of managing property," Eggert said. "They're in the business of getting money back so they can lend it."

-- Washington Post Staff Writers Michael S. Rosenwald and Dina ElBoghdady