Financial planner and author Patricia Howard say people planning for retirement need to stick to the “tried and true” when it comes to investments, despite the challenges of the pandemic. “It’s extremely challenging and the risk that retirees face is that they’ll feel panicked, that they’ll feel pressured and that in itself will push them out along the risk curve,” she said. “You need to stick to the tried and true, to those really strong investments that will stand by throughout your retirement”. Ms Howard told Sky News people need to step back and “have a good hard look” at their financial situation as they approach retirement. “It won’t be as bad as where they thought they were last year, the share market for example has come back quite strongly, but that is the starting point, develop a really good understanding of where you are now,” she said. “Then the next step is to think through how you want to spend your retirement. “For most Australians they’ll spend 20-30 years in retirement - that’s a long time - so you need to really plan a future that’s going to excite you, that’s going to make you think wow, I really want to get out of bed tomorrow’."