Invest now!

I've written about my enthusiasm in our current economy before, but never have I had such a desire to put my money in the market. There are deals all over the board. Hundreds of good solid companies are being slammed by the market and they are selling at record levels. The return on the companies is going to be through the roof 10, 20 and 30 years from now.

If you don't like dabbling in individual stock put your money in an index fund, but do it now. Unless you are trying to get out from under credit card debt you should be putting any available money you can into the market. The S&P 500 peaked out just under 1600 in 2007. It currently sits at 850. I'm not saying it won't fall further. I can't predict the bottom and if anyone says they can you need to steer clear of that person.

If you were in the market for a 50 inch LCD that was $1600 and got slashed to $850 would you wait to see if it goes lower? I wouldn't. I would buy the thing and enjoy the Super Bowl on Sunday (speaking of which the best time to buy a TV is the week following the Super Bowl because of all the discounts).

If you believe that American business is out of luck and we are going to falter as a country and as an economy then by all means buy some land, build a cabin, dig a well and go be happy, but if you are like me and feel that the economy will rebound sometime and things will be business as usual in the next 10 years then get some money in the market.

Personally I think Microsoft is a great buy right now. The announced layoffs hammered the price of the stock, but that just shows me that the company is in the business of making money. Harsh as it may sound I'm not looking for a feel-good company to put my money in. I want a company that can make the right decisions when it needs to. Microsoft is suffering because the public isn't buying new computers or new software, but do you think that will last? The economy will rebound and I'm betting that when it does a lot of people will be upgrading their computers. When that time comes Microsoft will shoot up again. That's a boat I want to be on.

I also think there are some good banks out there that are going to come out of this recession like champs. The banking industry is getting hammered and because of it some very good businesses are selling for cheap. Check out Wells Fargo.