The Buy Now Pep Talk

I'm no EF Hutton but if you told me I could get into the stock market for prices from 5 years ago I would jump on it. Sure you can say that prices have been inflated but still the fact remains that the market WILL go back up and for all of us with 20-30 years of work ahead of us before we retire this is not the time to pull back. This is the time to buy. This is the time in the new year to increase your 401K contributions.

I think the biggest change we have to make as investors is that volatility will be apart of the future and when you are ready to retire you can't build in the assumption you can keep trying to grow your portfolio after you retire. Right now we use the assumption that even though you retire in your mid 60's you have 20+ years of living to do and therefore you can continue to stay aggressive. I am planning to get much more conservative in my 60's to protect principle. Essentially, since all our retirement models are built using the former principle you'll have to increase contributions now.

Think about it. People reveal their true character when times are tough not when times are good. This is the challenge of our generation. I've said before we can either fix all this now or we can point blame and continue to live our current lives and pass the debt and the problems both domestic and international onto our children to fix.

Get yourself out of consumer debt. Save more money. Invest wisely but aggressively in your future. Take responsibility when things don't work out. In this system we live in which Warren Buffett still says is the greatest in the world there is no guarantee of winning only that you get to play the game. In this take no responsibility world it is like we've forgotten that it isn't a guarantee only an opportunity. For God's sake, quit blaming others when it doesn't work and certainly don't look to the government to save you. Take a look at yourself....are you part of the problem or the solution in this whole mess??