There is a way to join a company’s long-term employee benefit program without lifting a finger, says Jim Nelson. Some firms offer Dividend Retirement Plans (DRIPs), which allow you to both receive regular dividend checks and reinvest earnings in discounted stock. And as long as dividend payments keep coming, there is no need to worry about a volatile share price.

Rick Pendergraft says the public will soon become desensitized to the ugly news that keeps coming out of the economy. That’s when individual investors will return to action. And that’s when it will be time to buy stocks again.

Andrew Snyder says savvy investors can earn some quick profits on the back of the government’s $700bn bailout plan. A company like General Electric (NYSE:GE) doesn’t need a cash injection to survive, but can use a “shot in the arm” to revitalise growth.

Nothing in life is perfect. In fact, to write such a sentence means most of my life must be pretty darned all right. After a too long and too snowy winter, I am, today sitting on the back porch with laptop in lap. Yeah, the WIFI signal just barely makes it out to here… the G5 in my office is hardwired to the Internet so it’s blazingly faster.