In between Holiday parties and family gatherings, I'm encouraging you to set aside an hour or two to take a look at where you are money-wise...

I can imagine what your inner voice might be saying...

"Oh no! I don't want to go there. The economy / market has decimated my portfolio and it's hopeless to even think about my financial future now."

I'd like to challenge this thinking (not that you've had

I've been watching the headlines over the past month about the unprecedented financial crisis - as am sure you have too.

 Here's the link to an excellent summary of what this crisis is and isn't: Mort Zuckerman's (Huffington Post) article, Anatomy of the Financial Crisis. I encourage you to read it and post your comments.

"Is now a good time to invest?"

"Should I sell everything and buy CDs?"

"What should I do to protect my retirement?"

I'm getting these kind of questions from my clients and colleagues. They are rightfully concerned.

As I've been saying for a while now, market downs are to be expected. In fact, with a thoughtful investment strategy, market downs provide buying opportunities. But don't lunge into the

While we’re all riding out the bumpiness in the market (I know, you're probably getting sea sick from the most recent declines), it’s important that you have a strong remedy for feelings of panic that often come about when you see your investments performance falling.

As you discovered in part 1, bumpiness—also called volatility—is part of what you sign up for when investing in the market.

One key

As you probably already know, the stock market has been particularly bumpy for the last 6 months. And, seemingly, the bumpiness has been going in the wrong direction! Year to date, as of October 2, 2008, the S & P Index (a proxy for the US stock market as a whole) has declined 22.87% (Source: Morningstar).

I have news for you. Declines are normal. So are rises. Investing successfully requires

It's officially launch time! The Basic 10 Minute Investing System includes:

10 Minute Investing Strategies: The 3 Step Plan To Create Your Wealth In 10 Minutes A Year

Manual - reveals powerful investing fundamentals the Pros use, the 3 step wealth creation process, BestFit strategy selection, and 15 investing strategies.

Workbook/Action Guide - use this guide along side the 10 Minute Investing

Here's some email correspondence between Errold F. Moody and me. For those of you who are not yet familiar with Errold, he's a financial planner, investment advisor, expert witness, an authentic advocate of investors and someone whom I think highly of. He's written a very good book, "No Nonsense Finance." I've recently asked him to conduct a review of my upcoming manual, 10 Minute Investment