down market

First I just wanted to say I'm getting a late start myself.
My belief is really that we are headed for another recession, but all that means is that we will be getting even better deals than we are now . How long? I don't know, but I was reading somewhere that there will be a point where retirees will start pulling their money out of the stock market to support themselves now that they are retiring, which will cause a crash of the stock market. Please understand that a recession means bad things for the people who do not understand what is happening, and who do not invest their money properly. This will not be a problem for you because YOU have an INVESTOR mindset, NOT an EMPLOYEE mindset!

Frankly I don't care how bad things are going to get, all I can do is prepare, and put myself in the path of the wealth transfer as best I can, because I can't do anything about things that are out of my control. You know what I told myself for the last two years? I told myself, "Why should I waste my time in investing; the stock market is crashing, the government is regulating and taxing business out of existence, we are going to become a police state, home prices are falling, etc,etc... So why bother trying", all sorts of negative things. I realized I needed to stop reading the newspaper, stop listening to people who say that investing in anything is bad and stick with a 'safe' J-O-B. I realized that I needed to take responsibility for my own life, stop being negative, and start making things happen in my investing career. I realized since I could do nothing about things that were out of my control, I needed to 'mind my own business'.
There is a saying, "There are people who make things happen, there are people who watch what happens, and there are people who say, 'What happened?' "
This is my story, so sorry if you were like, "I asked a simple question and I get this crazy rant???" lol.

Understand that markets are ALWAYS in different cycles, it doesn't matter if the US economy is the best in the world, there would still be places that are doing bad and places that are doing great. It is all a cycle. You will not miss out on anything, because there are strategies for investing in any type of market, you just have to find the right strategy that works in that particular market. For all the people(who say "What happened") that lose a ton of money in the recession, there will be few entrepreneurs who seize the moment to make a ton of money. There will always, ALWAYS be moments to seize. While we are starting late, you have to realize there are still many investors who do not have the knowledge that we have to go 'fast' Stay positive, continue to work on your on your investments, pay attention to what is happening in the markets, and be prepared to move quickly. I cannot stress how important it is to stay positive.
Hope that helps!

RENinja