First thing on a Monday morning, the financial advisor picked up the phone and heard a client ask a simple question: “Can you help me? I need to decide which loan I should sign.” When he asked the client, who was worth several million dollars, what it was all about, the advisor was stunned to hear: “I just can’t make ends meet.” The two scheduled an appointment for the following Thursday at the client’s home.

Much of the financial industry is hurting these days, and you can bet that Wall Street is working overtime to hook investors in one way or another. Insurance companies are promoting a product that looks (at least to them) like a winner, especially during tough times.

When all you have is questions, sometimes you want to turn to the experts. When the experts don’t know, or when they give conflicting answers, you want to turn to the Masters.

As winter and a new calendar year arrive, investors are struggling tomake sense of the market and what to do. Many investors are content, ifonly barely, to stick with tried-and-true wisdom and long-termstrategies. But other investors think (or hope) that they can figureout what the market will do and how to take advantage of it.

Despite what you have been reading and seeing in the news, we are not approaching the end of the world. There’s no question that these are serious, confusing and distressing times. Sometimes it feels as if chaos has gained the upper hand.