When the market has presented the best time to buy, history indicates, the majority of investors will not want to buy. This is because downturns in a market cause fear and instability affecting current portfolios of many investors. Conversely at the same time, it creates new opportunities to invest in long-term investments at very low prices.

Between January 1926 and the close of 2007, including the period of the Great Depression, the economy of the 1970s, and “black Monday” of October 1987, the S&P 500 in the United Sates delivered an annualized return of over 10%, a rate of compounding that would have transformed a mere $1,000 invested at the beginning of that period into more than $3 million.

Most investors have taken a hit only in this shorter-term period of the sub-prime crisis. The problem is that most of us do not think long term when markets are volatile or declining. If you purchased good equity investment funds (holding good stocks and securities) one, two, or three years back, which are now lower in value, ask yourself this question:

When the market recovers, won't these funds (holding good stocks and securities) begin to recover and perform better in the long term?

Time is the component of investing we must now patiently work with. The majority of investors think, “I have a long way to go to my million-dollar retirement and only a short time to get there.” Thus long-term investing is relegated to short-term panic, while people forget that what goes down also goes up. Develop stable thinking when the markets are destabilized. Believe these principles, and you can beat the market's average in the long term, though not in the short term.

If you sell, others will pick up your ball and run while purchasing at your lowered values. They will watch your investment securities—such as during the rallies in March after major declines occurred—rise to new highs during the upcoming recovery. Granted, it can take a long time, but in the meantime would it not be wise to begin investing at lower prices?