Eventually any loss will be made up. That thinking may make more sense at the end of a bear market but not when the bull has broken all the records. People who have never been in a bear market or who believe the Wall Street propaganda about a permanent boom will be devastated by the bear. The bear brings financial disaster and a kind of fear that changes the way people behave and think for years to come. Don't let the bear get your money.
Retirement plans can sit in T-bills for a year with one phone call.
Everyone in the market makes the assumption that they can get out before a big downward slide. In other words, they will be able to see trouble before others and make their exit. Past market reversals generally follow a pattern of steep repetitive drops wiping out as much as half the bull-market gains within a few weeks. The bear doesn't ring a warning bell. The way people have deluded themselves about a perpetual bull market means that many will decide to weather the decline.