I understand your fear about being in the stock market right now. The simple answer to your question is in the question itself: “greed and ignorance created this problem.” How do you combat greed and ignorance in investing? You do so with knowledge that informs a well-crafted plan focused on your own goals rather than simply the accumulation of more.

The truth about what happened in the meltdown is that many people jumped into investments they didn’t understand. And you’re right, they did so out of greed. The unfortunate part is that all of us suffered to some extent because of that greed.

The silver lining, though, is that on the other side of a stock market drop is essentially a fire sale. Just like when your favorite store has a clearance, prices on shares of many solid companies and funds are well below where they should be. That means investors can buy more and make steady gains, especially if you follow dollar-cost averaging strategy (which just means you invest a specific amount at regular intervals over a given amount of time).

The most important thing to remember is that investing is not gambling. Many novice investors make the mistake of letting the word “investing” conjure up the image of some guy locked in his home office, risking his kid’s tuition money trying to time the market. Before you dive in, arm yourself with as much knowledge as you can about the basics of investing by going to the library and checking out something as simple as “Investing for Dummies”. There are all kinds of resources out there to help novices become literate about investing and the more literate you become, the more confident you’ll be. Take your time and take it slow.

Don’t raid your retirement even to put food on the table when you’re out of work. Agree or disagree?

For the most part, I agree. That is if by “raid your retirement”, you mean take an early withdrawal from a tax-deferred account like a 401(k) or 403(b). With a few exceptions like taking cash for a downpayment if you’re a first-time homebuyer, early withdrawals from these plans do far more long-term damage than short-term good. For one, you lose the principal (the amount you take out) and thus any interest you’d make on that money over the years. That could be a substantial loss if you’re in your 20s or 30s and still have two decades to pile on that interest.

Second, by taking an early withdrawal, you’ll pay a heavy penalty on top of being immediately assessed taxes on money that you otherwise wouldn’t pay until after you’ve retired, when your tax rate would be lower anyway. If you’re in dire straits now, think how you’ll feel when the government’s tax bill comes at the end of the year.

That said, if taking money from your retirement is your only option and you’re really, seriously on the verge of starving, it’s probably better to not starve. But for most people who are still capable of finding some kind of way to put food on the table (have you filed unemployment or sought part-time work??), this is an absolute, positive last-resort of all last-resorts.

The credit was approved by Congress last year to try and fix the foreclosure problem. It expires soon, so Congress is debating whether to extend or even expand it to a $15,000 credit.

My answer is it should be extended for another year. Here’s why: though some are optimistic the recession is ending, we can’t afford another “-less” recovery — as in “job-less” or “homebuyer-less”. The economy needs housing stability to be really strong and that’s not possible until people have jobs again. Employment will likely be one of the last things to recover, so without help, people still won’t be making major purchases like homes.

Note to haters: I’m NOT suggesting that the government subsidize home purchases for the unemployed. My point is that average people don’t judge the economy’s strength like economists do; we go by what we see in our checkbooks and what’s happening around us. If a lot of my friends are still out of work or being laid off, I’m not likely to be comfortable borrowing a few hundred grand for a new crib.

On the other hand, the one good thing about the recession is that it caused working people to re-evaluate their financial habits. I believe a year from now, many people who weren’t previously able to save enough for a down payment and to clean up their credit will have done so, and at that point there won’t be a real need for an $8,000 or $15,000 tax credit anymore.

But that’s a year from now. Until then, I fear for people like my friend who’s home in suburban Cincy has lagged on the market for more than a year without a single offer, despite repeated price drops and an attempted short sale. Congress should renew the credit.

But my fortune at being disciplined and financially stable enough to pay off my Visa makes me consider the millions of people in the US who are neither as disciplined nor as fortunate; people like Ann Minch, who the HuffPost profiled for her refusal to pay off a Bank of America credit card because, she says, they’ve gone too far in jacking up her rates. Here’s Minch on video talking about her “debtors revolt”:

Is Minch right? Should we have the right to just say “screw you” to lenders who are treating us unfairly, or is this the rant of someone who made irresponsible choices with credit and needs to do what I did and just pay up?

So as to lead by example, I’ve been keeping tabs — publicly, on how my quest to get rid of more than $8,000 in credit card debt has gone since last year and today I’m happy to report that the magic number is down to a mere $679.45!

No secrets, no tricks, no gimmicks or TV commercials, just common sense budgeting and consumer discipline is all it took. And even though a trip to Florida (for business) and school shopping for my son were a setback in August (I was supposed to pay the whole thing off last month but wound up adding more than $700 to the balance); I used the same discipline to quickly pay every penny off and keep the balance right where it is. $679.45.

Can’t wait till the first week of Oct. to blog/tweet that zero balance.