After years of saving and patiently watching your retirement portfolio grow, you want to make sure that stock market volatility doesn't derail your retirement plans.

Consider the following:

• Take another look at all factors affecting your retirement plans, based on recent experience. Go through the calculations to determine how much you should save annually, using your retirement portfolio's current value in those calculations. You may want to adjust your assumed rate of return, especially if your risk tolerance has shifted and you don't want to invest so heavily in stocks. To compensate for market volatility, you may need to significantly increase your annual savings amount. If your retirement is many years away, that might be enough. If you plan to retire in a couple of years, you may have to rethink your plans.
  
   
• Utilize tax-advantaged ways to save for retirement. You should ensure that your savings are working as hard as they can. One way to do that is to save in a tax-advantaged manner, such as contributing the maximum you can to your 401(k) plan. Contributions are made from pre-tax dollars and earnings grow tax deferred until withdrawn. In addition, many 401(k) plans offer matching employer contributions. In those cases, you pass up free funds by not contributing. Also look into traditional and Roth individual retirement accounts.
  
   
• Diversify your retirement portfolio.  To help protect your retirement portfolio from major market swings, make sure your portfolio is diversified among a variety of investments. Different asset classes move up and down at different times. By combining different asset classes in one portfolio, these variations tend to be smoothed out, lessening the risk in your portfolio.
  
   
• As you near retirement age, make sure your cash and fixed-income investments cover three to five years of retirement expenses. That way, you won't be forced to sell your stock investments during a market decline to pay living expenses.
  
   
• Consider postponing your retirement date.  Or you may want to consider working part time after retirement. Market volatility may mean that you won't be able to reach your retirement savings goals as quickly as you would like. You may need to work longer, until your investments recover.
  
   
• Decide whether you want a professional to help manage your investments.  In this more volatile market environment, you may feel more comfortable having your investment managed by a professional, rather than making all investment decisions yourself.