How one responds to panic is what separates the good investors from the rest. Market crashes are a great opportunity to get rich. Putting all your money in cash or gold waiting for the next crash (ie, timing the market) is a great way to miss out on returns. Keep a portfolio balanced with some cash/bonds so that you can take advantage of crashes, but leave most in equities (or real estate, etc) to capture most of the regular gains that occur the majority of the time.