The steady stream of bad news from Wall Street is giving folks the jitters here on Main Street in Temple. That’s where local investment adviser Hugh Shine keeps his office.

Investors worried about cracks in their nest egg are keeping Shine at his desk through lunch and late into the evening.

“This is a real shakeout,” Shine said from his downtown Temple office at Wachovia Securities. “Nothing is unscathed. People are very anxious. They’re concerned and they need to talk to somebody who understands what they have.”

At the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton, professor of finance Dr. Larry Woodward said he is using the recent economic turmoil as a teaching opportunity.

“We were talking about this in class today. No one has seen anything like this,” Woodward said. “Every new crisis is different from the previous.”

Both Shine and Woodward point to the subprime mortgage problem as the root of the current economic turbulence. They offer similar tips for riding out the storm.

First: Don’t panic and take everything out of the stock market. The sky is not falling. Woodward said this is especially important for young investors.

“Don’t worry about it, ride it out. This is something that is going to pass in a couple of years. If they get out now they would be selling low,” Woodward said. “They would end up shooting themselves in the foot.”

Second: A financial checkup could ease those nervous stomachs without Pepto-Bismol. Many people don’t even know what stocks are in their retirement plans, Shine said. No matter how scary, take a hard look at your investments.

“They need to be talking to somebody. Whoever they use, whoever they have confidence in,” Shine said.

Third: Don’t stop investing.

“Because prices are depressed so badly, they are able to take advantage of that, so they are buying it very, very cheap,” Shine said. “It is a silver lining for a worker not planning on retiring for another 10 or 15 years. I would continue to contribute to your 401k and try to maximize as much as you can afford to put in there because you’re going to make some timely purchases.”

Fourth: Don’t get greedy.

“I would not encourage anyone to get out there and speculate in this market at all,” Shine said. “For anyone in a 28-31 percent tax bracket, or better, tax-free municipal bonds are always my first choice,” Shine said.

Senior citizens will take the hardest hit from the stock market downfall, Shine said, because they rely on those stocks to provide them income today. Their situation is best analyzed individually.