YES!!! The Dow is at the 9500 mark!! I have been waiting for this day for months! Why? Because this is THE BEST TIME for me to start buying into the stock market that I will ever have in my life! I am practically salivating at the opportunities the market is presenting right now.

From here I expect the market to dip further, with the occasional rebound, but nothing beyond 11,500 points at most and it won’t be sustained for more than a few months. After that it’s going to tank further into the 7,000-point range…possibly lower. If the experts are correct and more banks are expected to fail in the next year or so, we will be seeing more volatile trading in the next few years.

At least that’s my gut feeling.

I only mention this to those of you who are in their 20’s & 30’s. As I stated above, this is the best time to invest we will see in our lifetimes. Now, more than ever, you need to start researching various companies and see where & how you want to invest your money. Think of it as a Fire Sale and cheap stocks in good companies will be ours for the stealing! Once the market recovers and continues to have steady gains (10-15 years from now), life will be extremely comfortable by the time we retire. Retirement is still much too far away to most of our liking, but we now have a greater chance of having a more prosperous retirement than we did if we had invested 2 years ago.

So, start researching and learning what you don’t know about investing and the stock market. DON’T BE INTIMIDATED, it’s easier than you realize. Keep things simple.

Also, START SAVING!! Cut back on expenses, most of us are already anyway. But now instead of treating yourself with dinner out or new shoes (I haven’t bought new shoes in 6 months!), think about what stocks you want to buy with the extra $50 - $100 bucks you stashed. Stocks that were worth $200-$300 a share two years ago are now worth $100 or less, so it IS possible to start building strong financial foundations with VERY little money & effort.