YOUR MONEY: MAKEOVER REDUX

Then: Judy, 56, a nurse, and Steve, 57, a Southern California Gas Co. technician, became middle-class millionaires through a lifetime of scrimping and saving. In March 2008, they were wondering how to best invest the $1.7 million they had squirreled away in savings and whether they could realize their dream of retiring early to a new home in Northern California. The planner said the Haibachs could retire and had enough money to last their lifetimes, provided that they diversified their portfolio and didn’t move money in and out of the stock market.

Now: The plummeting stock market almost halved the nearly $900,000 in their 401(k) accounts. Another bit of bad luck: Two days before he planned to file for retirement, Steve slipped off a ladder while trimming trees, shattering his heel. The accident put him on disability for nearly nine months and delayed his retirement indefinitely.

New habits: Steve intends to return to work as soon as his doctors give him the OK, although he plans to retire sometime this year. The stock market decline has forced the couple to revise their goals. They decided not to buy a home in Northern California. Instead, they will redo the kitchen in their Moorpark home and stay put.

Nervous about declines in their savings, they pulled the remaining $500,000 in their retirement accounts out of the stock market and put it in a money market account. They also refinanced their home loan and started paying an extra $1,000 a month on it.

The Haibachs have since reinvested their retirement money in the stock market, but they missed some of the recent gains.

“We swore we’d never do that again,” Judy said about their panicked decision to pull money out of the market.

-- Kelly Barron