On March 9, I bought 10 shares of SPY, an ETF that mimics the S&P 500. ETFs are also available that track the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA) and the NASDAQ-100 (QQQQ). Essentially, these stocks allow you to invest in the stock market index’s progress without investing in individual stocks which have higher individual risks than the stock market as a whole. Anyway, I did this mostly because I believed that the market would eventually recover, and it would help even off the loss I’ve seen from the 10 shares of SPY that I bought in 2002.

Little did I know how right I was. March 9, 2009 was the exact day the S&P 500 hit its 10-year low. Go me.