Panic selling, not bad investments, is what costs most people money — a warning aimed at anyone tempted to bail out during a market drop.

• The main reason people lose money investing is emotional reaction, not the quality of what they own.
• In a typical year over the past century, the market has fallen about 14% at some point before recovering.
• Most of those drops never turned into real bear markets of 20% or 30%.
• Because selling is instant and easy, people hit the button during the dip and lock in the loss.

Outlook: Expect ordinary double-digit pullbacks to keep happening, and the investors who sit through them to come out ahead of the ones who flinch.