It's not a good time to be making predictions, especially about the future.
This article sums it up pretty well:
http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2008/01/dont_freak_out_portland_advise.html
Particularly this bit:
"The contradiction here, the irony, is that now is a great time to be buying. The market's on sale today. When Nordstrom's has a sale, do people stay away? The market's having a 20% sale after the last two weeks. It's a great time to buy. That's premised on the fact that you have a long-term time horizon. If it goes down another 5%, so what? We looked at recessions going back to '69 and '70, tracking market returns in the months before, during and after each recession. Within six months of most recessions, the markets had wiped out all the losses and were ahead slightly. People need to be patient, to plan their finances. If you have a need for cash in a year or two years, you should be cautious. It's all driven by your time horizon. But if you're 10 years from retirement, you really have a 40-year time horizon.
"Based on life expectancy rather than retirement date?
"Yes. Those people, 10 years from retirement, should be pouring money into their 401(k) right now."
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