Seize the opportunities for future wealth today

CLARKONOMICS: When people are most afraid to move, economics shows that's when you should.

Think about housing. If you go back seven years ago, hotel ballrooms and arenas were filled with Dare To Be Rich seminars on "can't lose" real estate investment strategies with no money down. Today, you could do the same seminars in a hotel suite because that's about how many people you would have in the audience.

The truth is when others are afraid to tread, that's when the real money is made. In real estate, very quietly, people are buying right now because they know that they'll make real money during the eventual recovery. Real estate has probably never been as cheap as it is today when you consider low interest rates and depressed purchase prices. (Of course, there are some exceptions like San Francisco, parts of New York and parts of Boston.)

Then you think about the stock market. Third World markets (aka emerging markets) had a horrible year. European markets had a lousy time, as we all well know. Here in the United States, we've been running in place for about 10 years with no real growth in people's investments. But the reality is the turtles who put money in steady as you go and never stopped made money during the last decade.

No one strategy is right

There's no one right strategy to create long term wealth or financial security. But there are combinations of strategies that create opportunity, real estate among them as I mentioned. And then there's my belief that if you are well diversified and put money in the stock market each and every month, you have the opportunity to benefit over years from people's fears about being in the game.

Europe is priced for World War III right now with the values of its companies. Could values go down even more from here? Of course. But the opportunity on the upside over time is great.

I'm about being well diversified. I don't try to time the market or jump on commodities bandwagons. That's not my game. I'm not into buying individual company stocks.

I believe if you share my reasoning, that capitalism is the greatest wealth generator there could be, today's problems are just noise on the path to you making money as an investor.

There is no better time to diversify in U.S. stocks, European and Japanese stocks and then Third World stocks. You can do it easily with a few mutual funds, some of which I have listed on my investment guide.

"Coulda, woulda, shoulda"

There's always opportunity when pessimism is high. People have been beaten up for five years now since 2007. A lot of people feel like a boxer in the sixth round of a 15-round fight and you've been knocked down every round prior. You've got to get up and fight again.

If you can set the emotion and fear aside, especially the younger you are, the more opportunity for wealth there is later. You don't want to be a "coulda, woulda, shoulda" case 20 years from now saying, "If I woulda done this, look where I woulda been today." Seize the opportunity now.