Concerns are growing over the steep declines on Wall Street.

Friday, the Dow closed down 5.5%. The Nasdaq was down 5.8% and the S&P 500 closed 5.9% lower. This after the stock market lost over $3 trillion dollars in value Thursday.

The word “recession” is now being thrown around. So, we asked Barry Bigelow, a wealth advisor from Fortune, if the use of that word is warranted.

He reminded us the stock market is people’s perception of what’s going on not necessarily what is actually happening. A recession is defined as two quarters of negative GDP growth. We won’t know until the end of April if we had negative GDP growth in the first quarter of this year.

But Bigelow does believe that growth could slow if the tariffs stay in place long term.

“I absolutely agree that a portion of tariffs are for negotiating a better trade deal. I think they will stay in place longterm. The President has said that he would like to replace income tax with tariff income. That needs to come to fruition if this is to continue and to see a contraction of growth and affects Americans in what they can buy in the future.”

The Trump admnistration says the tariffs are meant to revitalize the American manufacturing industry. But President Trump acknowledged on Thursday that this plan could take years.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell says he expects Trump’s tariff policy to increase inflation.

In the meantime, what should you do if you’re seeing a dip in your investment accounts, particularly your IRA or 401k? Bigelow says that depends on how close you are to retirement.

“401k are always a mix of equities and bonds and cash. And so you’re seeing those go down. It’s different for everybody and where you’re at in your life. And how dependent you’re going to be on that the money,” Bigalow said.

He said the reality is some money should always be in cash, no matter what is going on with the stock market.

“Historically, we want to see up to 5 years of cash or bonds available. That’s the longest stock market recession that we’ve seen in the United States. So if you have that amount of cash in your budget, you shouldn’t need to worry about whatever is going on with the stock market long term.”

Bigelow also told us that panicking doesn’t help, and long term decision making is better when dealing with finances. If you think you need investment guidance, consult a wealth advisor for help.