Are you

getting that nervous "time to sell" twitch

following news this week that the Fed intends to raise

interest rates?

It would be

the second rate hike in less than a year, and that gives

many investors sell fever.

Take two

aspirin and ignore it and it'll go away, says Elizabeth

Whitlock, investment broker with Edward Jones and

Company.

"One

mistake investors can make is varying their strategy

based on rate hikes," says Whitlock, who works in

the firm's Fayetteville office.

Interest

rate increases actually help steady, long-term investors,

Whitlock adds. "In the short term, it might

negatively impact the market, and if you're investing in

industries such as financial services that are highly

sensitive to rate increase, you'll notice an impact right

away," she says.

But if your

investments are sound, a temporary drop in price is

nothing more than a buying opportunity, she says. "I

believe in buying quality and holding for the long

term," she adds.

If you're

worried about interest rates' impact on bonds, she says,

then buy bonds with different maturity periods for better

protection.

That way,

you have money becoming available at various times to

reinvest, to take advantage of the occasional

fluctuation, or avoid its ill effects.

Just as

real estate agents tout "location, location and

location," investment advisers urge clients to

"diversify, diversify, diversify," adds

Whitlock.

"Ninety

percent of a portfolio's overall performance can be tied

to how well diversified it is," she says, "not

to interest rates."

The same

advice holds true for today's popular high technology

stocks: buy quality companies, diversify, and hold onto

those stocks for the long run, says Whitlock.

"If

the price [of a stock] is being driven only by emotion

and buyer fervor, then that bubble could burst," she

cautions. "Buy solid companies that have solid

earnings."