Market swings persist as the full picture continues to develop on exactly which of President Donald Trump’s tariffs are here to stay and which are subject to further changes. At times like this, it’s important to take a step back and evaluate your investing goals before you start tinkering with things like retirement savings accounts. No matter how much red you see on the charts tracking stock indexes and bond moves, how you should be reacting depends on not just where the markets are at, but also where you’re at.

For more on navigating this moment, “Marketplace Morning Report” host David Brancaccio spoke with Barry Ritholtz, co-founder, chairman and chief investment officer at Ritholtz Wealth Management in New York. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.

David Brancaccio: Let me guess. I bet this happens to you. It happens to me when people know what I do for a living. “It probably goes something like, “Hey, Barry, should I buy the next dip in the market?” What do you tell them?

Barry Ritholtz: So my answer is always, “What are your financial goals? When are you planning on retiring? When do you need this money?” If you're 10, 2 years away from retirement, sure, you should be making regular contributions. And every time the market is 15%, 20%, 25% down, you should throw a little more capital at it. But if you're retiring in the next 12, 18, 24 months, hey, maybe buying the dip isn't ideal for you. Because you're going to be drawing down, and you have to make sure your portfolio is robust enough to withstand that sort of volatility.

Brancaccio: I feel especially bad for people who need their money right away. They turn 65 not in months, but five weeks from now, and they were all set to jump out of the rat race and all this happens.

Ritholtz: That is one of the biggest problems that we encounter. In fact, no less, say, notable than Bill Sharpe, Nobel laureate, has said that challenge is one of the thorniest problems in all of finance.

Brancaccio: The thorniest problem is knowing when to get out? Or, if you're getting close to really needing your money, what posture do you adopt?

Ritholtz: Some people have described this as a sequence of returns problem. It's knowing that if you start retirement in a draw down, it has a substantial impact on how much money you're capable of pulling out of your lifetime. In other words, you're much better off starting with a plus 10% and having a minus 10% somewhere 10 years down the road, than starting out 10% in the hole. Anything you sell to draw down, and let's use 4% as kind of the industry standard, that's 4% that you're drawing down [when the market is] minus 10%, that never has a chance to recover.

Brancaccio: Could be parents who need to pay for some college education soon, or they want to liquidate to get a house. But it's something that you need to plan for.

Ritholtz: That’s right. If you have a young child who's not going to college for 10 or 15 years, it's a non-issue today, because you're looking on the other side of this. On the other hand, if you have a 15 year old who's going to start college in 2026, 2027, this is a really challenging set of circumstances.