Stock and bond index funds, plus patience always win

[question everything]

I have always liked Jane Bryant Quinn. Read her columns I think that I even had a book of her.

She used to have a financial advice column in the AARP Magazine and retired last fall, intending to spend a year in Rome - but left after six months..

Anyway, in the most recent issue she covered the various crashes and how long it took for a recovery: 1973 = Conflict in the middle East; 1980 = Stagflation, 1987 = Black Monday - still the larges one day percentage drop ever; 1990- The Gulf War; 2000 = the Tech Bubble Bursts and 2007 - Real estate Goes Bust.

And she concludes: It's never the end of the world. Stock and bond index funds, plus patience, always win.

I suppose one's time horizon plays. The 1973 took 70 months to recovery. That's a long time if one is already retired.

Still, I have never made any changes during such events. Oh, I sold all of my tech start up stocks in 2002, I think. But they did not constitute a major share, if remember correctly