“When you invest in the stock market, you’re in it for the long haul,” said Celia Hayhoe, Extension family resource management specialist and Certified Financial Planner. “You have to weather these ups and downs now as you would any other time.”

It takes a long time for a market recover

Oil prices rebounded from a 13-month low Monday, pushing above $81 a barrel after the dollar weakened and investors trickled back into financial markets on hopes that a globally coordinated rescue plan will stave off an economic crisis.

After a massive eight-session losing streak, the Dow staged its biggest single point-gain ever.

If last week was any indication, Washington’s medicine has yet to take hold. Wall Street suffered through its worst five-day period in history as investor fears about frozen credit markets deepened and they yanked money out of the markets, sending major indexes tumbling from New York to Hong Kong.

Their drop in value means less tax money for public services

Experts say that even when the current credit crunch eases, the nation may finally have maxed out its reliance on borrowed cash. Today’s crisis is a warning sign, they say, that consumers could be facing long-term adjustments in the way they finance their everyday lives.

Whether you’re a stock broker or Joe Six-pack, if you have a 401(k), a mutual fund or a college savings plan, tumbling stock markets and sagging home prices mean you’ve lost a whole lot of the money that was right there on your account statements just a few months ago.

Analysts believe GM would need a lot of cash to acquire Chrysler

$12.2 billion takeover creates largest U.S. bank by branches