Its been a long day, you wasted an hour of your life stuck in a traffic jam, and you're happily greeted by the bubbly blonde reporter that the stock market is in the crapper again. It's no secret that 2008 has everyone worried with the rampant negativity, but some folks are beginning to turn a deaf ear to the market in its entirety.

That, my friends, is just what I am advising you to do.

Join a sports club, collect stamps, go gawk at the hot people in the mall, but whatever you do, don't watch the news! Now, you might be saying...

• What happened to being an informed investor?

• What if I lose money because of the impending recession?

• What if the Chinese stock market bubble bursts and the global stock
  markets crash?

Relax, the sky didn't fall when Chicken Little said the "sky is falling" and it's not going to in this case either. No, it's not male bravado nor has someone spiked my coffee with peyote. My reasoning is simple. It's been advised time and time again. The advice is, stay the course!

Most investors, especially younger investors (25 – 40), build their retirement accounts by adding money on a regular basis. Sure, a generous stock market can beef up your account balance, but in the early stages of life, you are buying as much equity as possible, hoping your investments ride along with historical 8%-10% annual returns that the US stock market indiceshave yielded since the early 1900s. That means maxing out your 401K and IRA contributions and/or dropping a few hundred bucks into a brokerage or savings account as often as possible.

However, the most important quid pro quo to this strategy is diversification. If you only have a few different stocks in your portfolio you could be in serious trouble.

Begin buying into a broad based index mutual fund (i.e., Vanguard Index funds) or exchange traded funds (ETFs) that trade just like stocks, but have an entire index in one easy to buy location. The best source of diversification in my opinion would be the S&P 500 index. By accumulating shares of this ETF known as Spyders under the ticker symbol "SPY," you are getting 500 companies at once.

I rarely advise anyone to do their best ostrich impression by sticking their head in the sand, but in this case, I think it's justifiable.

Start by diversififying your accounts, keep adding contributions each month and stay away from the constant recession paranoia.

Disclaimer: This is for informational resources only, not as professional investment advice. Please review all necessary information on your own or by a financial professional prior to making any investment.