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Money you won't need to use for at least seven years is money for investing. The goal here is to have your account grow over time to help you finance a distant goal, such as building a retirement fund. Since your goal is in the future, money for investing belongs in stocks.

I think three-to-five years ahead minimum. I have a short-term plan, a five-year plan and a decade plan.

If you want to make an impact, you need to invest your time every bit as much as your money. And you need to stay involved for the long run. If you can't look at a five-year horizon, you shouldn't get involved.

You could lose hundreds or thousands one day on paper and gain it all back the next, and it has literally no effect on your immediate future, provided the money you have in the market is money you're investing for the long haul (meaning at least three to five years).

If you're 35, 45, or even 55 - you have a very long time horizon - 40 years or vastly more. That is you, and/or your spouse, are likely to live about that long, and you'll be investing the whole way.

The average mutual fund holding period for equity or fixed income is only about three years. It's too short.

My advice to the average investor in 1988 is to be patient and think long-term. It will take 18 months for confidence to get better and, in the meantime, this is absolutely no place for short-term money.

It may take you months or even a few years to build up an adequate emergency savings fund. That's okay.

It is never too early to encourage long-term savings.

Sometimes my mistake has been hesitancy about acting on the decisions I've made. When's the best time to invest? It's today, not tomorrow.