Do you ever find yourself worrying about what will happen to your investment portfolios based on world events?

Your portfolio management should not need to flex to the crisis du jour. If it does, you need a better plan. An investment plan based on crisis management or the emotions stirred by a crisis is a plan that won’t work.

Good portfolio management expects the unexpected. Proper portfolio management is about managing to the risk (e.g., the British exit from the EU, a financial bubble, or a terrorist attack).

Your money serves different purposes. Some must be available for short-term needs like emergencies. Some is for mid-term needs like saving for a home. Some is for long-term needs like retirement. Another might be to generate income. Each of these financial objectives requires a different strategy of money management.

Short-term savings must be stable and liquid at all times because when you need them, they must be available for use. Sure, you aren’t making a return on your short-term savings, but that’s not the point. The point for short-term money is stability and availability.

Long-term money, on the other hand, requires a return that allows you to offset the damage of taxes and inflation over time and earn excess returns to build wealth. You won’t be touching this money for a long time. Short-term volatility is not the point; the long-term gains are the point.

For average people to build wealth for long-term needs, the investment markets must go down. You need a portfolio strategy designed to take advantage of the short-term drops in the markets. Short-term drops are our only chances to buy at sale prices before the markets continue their constant movement upward.

So are world events and crises a big deal? Absolutely. They can drive down the markets so our next contribution to our 401(k)s, Thrift Savings Plans, or IRAs can take advantage of lower prices. You should expect — even want — a market drop (the reason doesn’t matter), plan for it, and take advantage of it.