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I thought that might be the case. I recently retired and went through a lot of struggles to get where I am I now. It is real hard to save enough to live off your savings for the next 30 years. It was real scary. Only by the miracle of God am I semi-secure now. I went through some fearsome times of bailing out of the market too. Eventually I learned that only investors willing to take risks are rewarded. One has to have the discipline to plow money in there and let it grow for decades and save at 20% a year. It is impossible to time the market. That is for fools. Best to diversify into index funds
While the US has problems the questions is — compared to what? Greece? China? In spite of lousy politicians the US is still the best place to be and invest (with some also diversified into international). This will continue for a long time .. even with the mounting debt because the rest of the world is even worse off. Although a correction or crash could come at any time & one has to be prepared for it.
Stocks pay almost as much in dividends or more as bonds. With interest rates so low it is hard to make much on bonds. One could invest in blue-chips that have been paying dividends solidly for decades. So one has to have some monies invested in stocks or they will get hammered by inflation.
I have learned a lot from sites by bogleheads forum. Good luck