For workers in their 20s and 30s, depressed stock prices following the worst 10-year U.S. market performance in history present an enormous opportunity. New research by mutual fund company T. Rowe Price finds that those who began investing regularly during severe bear markets in the past were significantly better off 30 years later than investors who began during bull markets — because they could buy more shares at lower prices.

But for many older workers in their 50s and 60s, the message from the meltdown is far different: To afford the retirement they desire, the only option is to work longer. That allows you more time to save, gives your investments more time to recover, decreases the number of years you need to rely on those savings, and boosts your Social Security benefits, which rise each month after age 62 that you wait to claim them, up to age 70.