Free checklist
The market-crash action plan
There will be another crash. Nobody knows when, everybody knows eventually. This list exists so that when it comes, you follow instructions from calm-you instead of improvising as panic-you. Print it now; open it then.
- 1
Do not sell today
Rule one buys you time for the rest of the list. Selling into a crash converts a temporary fall into a permanent loss, and the market's best days historically cluster right next to its worst.
- 2
Remember what a crash is
The same businesses, marked down. The supermarket did not forget how to sell groceries because its ticker fell 30%. Prices changed; the companies mostly did not.
- 3
Check your emergency fund, not your portfolio
The question that matters is whether you can pay your bills without selling shares. If yes, everything else is noise on a screen you can close.
- 4
Keep the direct debit running
Your monthly contribution is now buying the same assets at a discount. The single biggest advantage of a salary earner in a crash is boring, automatic buying.
- 5
Do not check prices daily
Every look invites an action, and most actions in a crash are wrong. Weekly at most. The recovery does not need your supervision.
- 6
Re-read why you own what you own
Thesis intact? Hold. Thesis broken by the same forces causing the crash? That specific position may deserve the exit, calmly, not the whole portfolio.
- 7
If you have cash earmarked for investing, deploy it on a schedule
Not all at once at what you hope is the bottom (nobody knows), but in fixed slices over weeks or months. Automate the courage.
- 8
Harvest losses outside wrappers, carefully
Realised losses can offset gains for tax. Mind the 30-day rule if you plan to rebuy the same holding.
- 9
Write down how this feels
One paragraph, dated. It becomes the most valuable thing you own next cycle: proof that the fear passes and that you survived it doing nothing rash.
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Educational information, not financial advice. Figures current as of July 2026 where dated; allowances and rates change, so check the source before acting.