If you’re still having trouble getting a feel for just how much $700 billion is, I have some even more frightening numbers for you.

That $700 billion is the cost of the economic bailout plan concocted by President Bush and his financial gurus to get the U.S. banking industry out of a sea of red ink tied to bad mortgages and other lousy decisions.

After urging quick passage on the measure, Bush had to sit and watch as House Republicans revolted, shooting down the measure 228-205.

As it became clear the rescue effort was going to be rejected, Wall Street began to nosedive. When the smoke cleared the Dow was off 777 points. That’s the largest one-day decline in market history, although not when you consider it as a percentage of the market’s worth. It was a 7 percent decline.

Now comes the really scary part. In those heart-rending couple of hours, more than $1 trillion in securities value disappeared.

It’s just paper, right? It’s not real. It doesn’t affect me and you.

Uh, think again. Do you have a 401K? Is your nest egg invested in funds that are heavily tied to stocks. Brace yourself. You just got hit.

At this point, you might not want to look at those 401K numbers.

The mantra in these situations, with the market in a freefall, is that the best option is to do nothing. To hang in there and wait for the market to rebound. They always say the worst thing to do is sell in a downturn. That, of course, assumes there is going to be a rebound.

Want to hear something really scary? This morning, for the first time, I’m actually hearing some experts talking about how it might be time to get out. That’s especially true, they say, if you’re not comfortable with the idea of waiting for that turnaround.

Remember that old saw about stashing the money under the mattress? Suddenly it’s not so funny.