Earn What You Spend

If you haven’t read it, do it now:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/17/opinion/17buffett.html
Buffett has some excellent points:
A simple rule dictates my buying: Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful.
…
Let me be clear on one point: I can’t predict the short-term movements of the stock market. I haven’t the faintest idea as to whether stocks [...]

If we learn anything from days like today, it’s that the market is fickle:

Source: Google Finance
Short-term investing in the stock market is a legal form of gambling - the market is simply too prone to wild swings like those from last week until today.  We saw some spectacular gains today, but it is easy to [...]

Make no mistake, this is a terrifying time.  It is unlike anything I’ve seen in my lifetime.  At the heart of it is a lack of confidence and a deep uncertainty about what will happen next.
The President addressed the nation this morning:
“The United States government is acting; we will continue to act to resolve this [...]

Here’s the video of Cramer telling us to take our money out:

It’s worth a few minutes of your time.
My advice is the same: calm down!  Pulling all your investments out of the stock market now, with the market off as much as it is, will just guarantee your loses.

The markets just keep getting scarier.
We’re now at 1999 levels in the stock market, and some are now calling this decade completely lost:
It took eight-and-a-half years for the Dow Jones Industrial Average to march from its first 10000 breakthrough to its peak around 14000, and less than a year to fall below 10000 again. Now, [...]

Ouch.
Here we are as of 2pm EST:

The fall is rather spectacular for it’s depth, even in the wake of a the massive bailout recently passed.  It’s led some well-known investment experts to cry the sky is literally falling.  According to Cramer:
“Whatever money you may need for the next five years, please take it out of [...]