Bucking the trend here, I've started encouraging everyone who is fearful of the stock market to sell and get out. Not because I think that's a good idea, but because we need irrational sellers to help keep prices down for those of us getting rich by dollar cost averaging.
A stock market with a shortage of sellers gets too expensive as the abundance of buyers compete for fewer and fewer opportunities. I'm a perpetual buyer, and I believe in the long term future of the US economy, so by all means please dump your shares at a discount during the next crash so that I can buy them from you. Your loss is my gain.
Most folks here have learned the lesson that we don't hold stocks because of their current market value. We hold them for the string of dividends they produce, and for the opportunity to exchange them for cash at some future time. Today's prices are pretty damn irrelevant, in that context, because all that matters is future prices when you intend to sell (and of course the current cashflow). The US stock market has never lost money over a 15 year period, so if your time horizon is 15 years or more, you shouldn't lose money by buying today. Even on the day you retire, if you intend to live 40 more years and sell it all over that time, your average time until sale is still 20 years.
You've heard Buffet's story about the neighbor shouting prices over the fence?
Buffett compared the stock market to a moody neighbor who stood at the fence each day shouting out offers to either buy the farm or sell his own at various prices. Most people can own a profitable farm or apartment building for decades without being tempted into panic selling.
“Owners of stocks, however, too often let the capricious and often irrational behavior of their fellow owners cause them to behave irrationally as well.”
