<prompt> Human: So does planning for retirement IRA count towards that? You are investing in certain things through those types of accounts right? Does the titles advice still pertain to that? Should most of your savings go there after you build an emergency fund?  <response>: Modify it a bit: Only invest in the market what you can afford to lose over the next 5 years. Over longer terms than that we can expect market gains to recover. If the market crashes, it will almost always bounce back within 5 years. The disastrous 2007-2008 financial crisis took about 5 years and 4 months to get back to the previous high. 