Whether you're building pension for retirement or have stopped working and living off your investments, your financial future is under fire.

It's an unnerving experience, seeing the value of your pensions and Stocks and Shares ISAs plunge, especially if you're about to start drawing money from them.

Many will have spent a working lifetime building up their retirement pot, only to see it shrink just as it's needed most. So what should people do?

The first piece of advice is - don't panic.

Selling during a crash is the surest way to lock in your losses. What might only be a paper loss today becomes a real, permanent hit if you sell.

It will also lock you out of any stock market rebound – assuming we get one.

Ed Monk, associate director at Fidelity International, said anyone who doesn't need their pension for the next five to 10 years can probably relax.

"If it loses value in the short-term just leave it invested. There's plenty of time to recover your losses," he says.

If coming to retirement and planning to take money, postpone if you can. "Any withdrawals you make today will erode your savings quicker if markets are down," Monk adds.

Those already in retirement should reduce the amount of income they take from their pensions, Stocks and Shares and ISAs and other equity-based investments, if they can.

That way there's a chance they can navigate today's choppy waters without eating into their underlying capital.

Pensioners living off the 'natural yield' from their portfolio, whether savings interest or dividend income, can continue to take that income, because it isn't deducted from their capital.

Today's volatility underlines why it's so important to keep a healthy amount in cash, especially in retirement.

Having savings on instant access allows you to ride out short-term market swings without being forced to sell investments at the worst possible moment.

History shows that markets recover given time, said John Plassard, senior investment specialist at Mirabaud Group.

"Is it the end of the world? No. Market corrections are part of the normal investment process.”

They're still terrifying though, especially for older investors living on smaller pension pots.

The best way to ride out ups and downs is to keep a balanced portfolio with money in a blend of shares, cash, bonds and gold.

That way if one asset class falls, another may compensate by rising. When shares are crashing, for example, bond and gold prices often rise.

Today, it's possible to get 4% or 5% on cash while the gold price has flown to an all-time high. The traditional safe haven is up 15% so far this year, and 26% over 12 months.

Don't rush into any one asset class just because it's rising though. Gold may be flying today but could crash back to earth if the panic calms.

Annuities have swung back into favour in recent years due to higher interest rates, and may now deserve a second look.

With interest rates still relatively high, annuities can offer a guaranteed income for life that's unaffected by short-term market turbulence.

Just be cautious about selling investments to fund your annuity purchase, as they are likely to be at a low point.

Remember the golden rule: never invest in shares unless you can stay invested for at least five years and ideally longer. That gives you time to weather storms until the sunnier days that usually follow.

Although right now, there's little sign of them on the horizon.