How should you invest in a bad economy? Stocks? Bonds?

— -- Enough. The stock market — and your savings — have gone down steadily, day after day, for more than a year.

You've lost thousands this month alone. It's time to do something. But … what?

Should you shift more money into stocks? Put it all into a savings account? Pay off your mortgage? Hop a freight and become a hobo?

"I could no longer watch in horror as the amount in my 401(k) kept sinking to new lows," says Ciarán O'Tuathail, 35, of New York City. "I transferred 100% of my retirement money to the guaranteed interest rate fund of 4.4%."

Experts agree: You should do something. The financial meltdown is the most serious since the Great Depression. Nearly $2.1 trillion has evaporated this month alone.

And if you were hoping to have a certain amount in savings by a certain date, well, you need to do some recalculating. It takes an average of 3.3 years to recover from the average post-Depression bear market, according to InvesTech Research.

But what you should do depends on your age, how soon you'll need your money, and just how terrified you are. USA TODAY's Kathy Chu, Matt Krantz, Sandra Block, John Waggoner and Christine Dugas talked to some of the nation's best financial advisers to find out what financial moves people should make now, based on their ages.

If you're in your 20s …

You're likely just getting started with stocks and bonds. As the market plunges, you can find some comfort in the fact that you probably haven't lost as much as other investors.

Young investors tend to panic less about the market because they have less to lose, says Jeff Eschman, a financial planner who works with young couples in Houston. Because these people are just starting their adult lives, they'll also have many years to recover from market downturns, he adds.

One mistake young investors make is confusing the principle of investing aggressively with making risky investments, says Sheryl Garrett, founder of the Garrett Planning Network, a network of advisers who charge by the hour. In your 20s, you should be putting at least 80% in stocks.

But ignore the advice that you should make your riskiest investments when you're young. You have lots of time — which means you can invest in a conservative stock fund, accept a lower return, and still reach your goals without worrying about catastrophic losses. "There's no need to be in tech stocks or emerging markets," Garrett says. "You can find great opportunities in stodgy old-fashioned blue-chip stocks."

As you invest, don't ignore your debt. Paying off a credit card that charges 25% is the rough equivalent of earning 25% on your investments — and not many investments will do that. Garrett says to put half your money into mutual funds and half toward debt. And your mutual fund investments can double as an emergency fund, Garrett adds.

If you're in your 30s …

Generation Xers, now mostly in their 30s, aren't strangers to tough times. Many graduated from college facing an ugly job market that forced them to take jobs they were embarrassingly overqualified for. Reality Bites was the movie that spoke to the generation.