Correction Provides Opportunities & Insights

Yesterday's correction provides a great excuse to rebalance your own long term portfolio. If you experienced significant losses you might want to consider looking at allocating more money to fixed income like the Lehman Aggregate Bond ETF (AGG). If you don't have any international equity exposure, consider looking at MSCI EAFA (EFA) or an emerging markets ETF like the (EEM). If you have large gains in certain sectors consider taking some profits and putting that money to work elsewhere.

As a side note, the US government limits defined benefit contribution pension plans from holding more than 10% of assets in company stock. I would do the same for a defined contribution (401 K) plan. If your employer matches your contribution in company stock, there is nothing wrong with selling the stock and putting that money into mutual funds. Enron employees had over 60% of company stock in their 401K's before the stock plunged. My take is that you already have a lot invested in your job with your company so you need to diversify your future and invest in many asset classes.