Investing in a recession can be the best of times for making investments. Why? Because things are cheap. Or it can be the worst of times if you have lost money or have no job.

To investor only has to believe that things are eventually going to improve. Warren Buffet tells us they will. He is investing but it realistically may take a lot of time to recover. Three, five or ten years?? We don’t know. Neither does him. However, since the stock market highs observed in October of 2007, stocks are now about 50% cheaper. We don’t know how long this will go on. If you have faith in our future, then now is the time to buy. Of course, you need to have a steady job and income to do so. Many of us don’t or are already retired. So some are stuck. Retirees or those within five years of retirement have been seriously hurt by this stock market drop. The saying goes that it is best to work and save in a recession (bear market) and retire in a bull.

Bear markets end somewhere around the middle of a recession. Are we there yet? Some say yes but you need to decide for yourself. Remember, markets lead the economy by 6-9 months. You want to be in the market, history teaches, because the stock market will rise significantly in the first year of the bull. If you miss that, you miss a lot. Anywhere from 20 to 60% increases are seen. History also shows that first term presidents usually see a rise in the market. Moreover, our government and other world governments are pouring trillions into the economy to invigorate it. They will avoid a depression. So things should get better with time. One must get in the water and be patient.

So what to buy? Well that is determined by your age, job, and position over all financially. If you are a Buffet or Gates, you can let your money sit and live off the interest the bonds may bring in. But you suffer loss in the long run if inflation occurs and you see no growth in your holdings.

If you are young, you need to consider how long you have to invest and how much. A young person should consider being aggressive and in stocks of all kinds—small, mid and large caps. You need to decide too if you want to buy and hold or get in and out of the market. We were all taught that buy and hold was the way to go. Not so now. Can you time the market? Not easy and not done successfully by professional people either. Not overlong time periods anyway.

If you are middle aged, you may need to be more conservative and get some growth while trying to preserve what capital you have left. If you lost a lot, then you may need to be more aggressive. If you are retired and have adequate money for the next 20-30 years, you may just want to sit on it in a safe haven and preserve it. The trouble starts when you need to have some growth to overcome any inflation that may occur or earn more money for later on. You need solid financial advice from professionals (even though they didn’t help you before because we lost 50% of our money with their help). The elder investor who needs money is stuck between the rock and the deep blue sea.