Reply #13: That depends on a lot of factors, and under no circumstances should social security

[still_one]

be allowed to be invested in the stock market

Why don't you tell that to the folks who invested in Enron, World Com, Lucent, plus a hell of a lot of other stocks many of which made up the QQQ which reached a high of 5000, and still is down 50%

Yeah, if people diversified well enough they should be OK, IF THEY DON'T NEED THE MONEY, AND DON'T HAVE TO SELL THEIR STOCKS to pay their living expenses

There is a MAJOR liquidty crisis happening right now, and there is no guarentee that as interest rates go down, money still won't be tight

"A stock crash is not bad"???

What if you are retiring, and you need your 401K, but its value has substaintially decreased because of a long term market crash?

This is NOT the kind of crash that occurred in 1987 or even after 9/11, this is due to a lot of factors, and it could take years to recover. That is fine if you don't need the money, but I suspect many who have IRAs and 401Ks, and pension plans do