Plans, planning and panic

Investors who do not have a plan tend to panic when something unexpected happens. Sometimes the panic is real. Other times it's induced deliberately. Recently, many mutual fund investors faced an induced panic. Some succumbed, and others did not. If the panic mostly passed you by, consider yourself lucky. However, in all likelihood, luck had nothing to do with it - you, as an investor - know what you're doing. Congratulations. Others, who panic, should examine why they did so. The root cause was nothing much, a taxation change in some mutual fund categories. Numerically, investors who were most affected were those who generally hold debt fund investments for three years or more. Since debt funds are generally for short-term use, this should not have been that big a deal. However, those who sell funds were able to convince many inves