Opportunity 2008

What now? The Motley Fool is here to answer your questions about this financial crisis. Send us an email at [email protected], and check back at Fool.com as we answer your questions and cover the latest on the Opportunity of 2008.

The bubble, bankruptcies, and bailouts are all in the backseat now. So is the panic that set in as we watched the markets' news unfold.

Fear not, Fools. With a calm head and a smart game plan, each of us can get through this.

We’ve all been hit by these events, too. And we’re here to help. We’ve collected our best advice from our best Foolish minds right here, but before you tuck in, remember these three things.  

1. Stay calm. This is not the time for rash, emotion-driven decision-making.
2. Educate yourself before acting.
3. Make an action plan, even if it’s simply staying the course.

Stay up to date on Motley Fool commentary by starting right here:

• If This Isn't a Great Time to Buy ...
• How to Salvage Your Retirement Plan Now
• This Strategy Still Wins
• JPMorgan: 1, Taxpayers: -$2.7 Billion
• Avoid a Lifetime of Regret
• What to Do When the Dow Hits 12,000
• The 10 Biggest Nasdaq Losers of October
• October's 10 Biggest S&P 500 Losers
• Profit From Paranoia
• The 10 Biggest Dow Losers of October
• How to Profit From Hedge Fund Selling
• Get Ready for the Next Leg Down
• Credit Dings Bring Insurance Woes
• The World's Scariest Stocks
• Will Analysts' Irrational Exuberance Sink the Dow?
• 5 Steps Necessary for a Housing Cure
• Why We Still Have a Long Way to Go
• A Message From the Editors: When Panic Becomes Opportunity
• Everyone's Jumping Into the Bailout Line
• Dump Your Losers or Double Down?
• Will This Rate Cut Work?
• Get Some Relief From Stocks
• You've Got Bigger Troubles Than the Market
• How to Ride It Out
• When Will the Wild Price Swings End?
• Roundtable: 3 Insanely Undervalued Industries
• 5 Signs Your Stocks Are Panic-Proof
• Fight the Panic and Win
• How Not to Solve the Credit Crisis
• Another Insane Wall Street Pay Story
• The Recession-Proof Investment
• 4 Ways You Must Take Action Today
• Another Stimulus Package? Say It Ain't So.
• Is Now A Good Time for the S&P?
• The Fool Answers: Is Now a Good Time to Buy?
• Sell Banks, Buy Tech
• This Technology Will Profit From the Panic
• Buffett Oversexed for the First Time Since 1974
• Jump on the Rally to Come
• Why the Panic Will Make You a Better Investor
• Pop Goes the Stock Market, Again
• Keeping an Eye on Credit Markets
• Stop Your Emotional Investing
• Why Uncle Sam's Help So Often Hurts
• Top 10 Things to Do While Waiting for the End of the Financial Apocalypse
• The Bright Spot in a Gloomy Market
• The New Threat to Your Life Savings
• Fool Poll: Are You Staying in the Market?
• How to Cope With a Global Financial Crisis
• Stocks Only the Government Could Love
• JPMorgan: The Last Great Megabank
• Retail, Real Estate, and Recession
• Should You Pounce on Panic-Sold Stocks?
• Paulson's Land Grab: Will Your Bank Be Next?
• Panic 2008: A Little Perspective
• Fool Video: The Government Is Buying. Should You Be?
• Party Like It's 2007
• The Writing Was on the Wall All Year Long
• Paulson Backs Up the Truck
• Fool Poll: Has the Credit Crisis Crunched You?
• Ask the Fool Your Questions
• How You Can Beat an Irrational Market
• Should I Stop Contributing to My 401(k)?
• 3 Stocks Bucking the Downtrend
• Morgan Stanley's Brush With Death
• Which Bank Will Cut Its Dividend Next?
• The Eggheads Blew It
• Fool Video: 7 Stocks for Now
• Best. Week. Ever.
• An Investing Game Plan for Right Now
• Now May Be the Time to Really Buy
• 6 Classic Signs of the Market's Bottom
• This Mistake Could Bankrupt You
• The 1 Rule to Follow Now
• How to Handle Your Own Financial Crisis
• Fool Video: David Gardner on the Market Meltdown
• Is Now a Good Time to Rebalance a 401(k)?
• What to Do With Your Money Right Now
• Advice for Investors in This Crazy Market
• Are We Headed Toward Another Great Depression?
• Roundtable: Panic, Sell, or Panic-Sell?
• What's Causing This Crash?
• GM and Ford Are in a Bind
• I'm Down 50%. What Now?
• The 2008 Gold Correction Is History
• If You're About to Panic, Read This First
• Fool Poll: How Low Will the Dow Go?
• Citi Surrenders, Wells Fargo Prevails
• Fool Video: Dow Down 7% -- What Now?

For more, check out the following sections below:

• What to Do Right Now
• Dissecting the Panic
• $700 Billion Plan Coverage
• Banking Meltdown
• Economic Notables
• Meanwhile ... Buffett Gets Greedy

What to Do Right Now

• Fool Video: Dow Down 7% -- What Now? -- Oct. 10
• How Bad Will It Get? -- Oct. 9
• 401(k) Steps to Take Now -- Oct. 8
• Is It Too Late to Sell? -- Oct. 8
• Fool Blog: How to Invest in Today's Market -- Oct. 6

Dissecting the Panic

• Fool Poll: How Low Will the Dow Go? -- Oct. 10
• Dow 5,000? -- Oct. 9
• The Credit Crunch Goes Global -- Oct. 9
• The Wall Street Panic of 2008 -- Oct. 8
• Fool Video: What the Fed Cut Means to You -- Oct. 8
• One World, One Rate Cut -- Oct. 8
• Cramer to the Market: Now Is the Time to Panic -- Oct. 6
• The Incredible Shrinking Dow -- Oct. 6
• Fool Poll: How Much Will You Spend This Holiday Season? -- Oct. 6
• Is the Global Financial System Collapsing Around Us? -- Oct. 2
• Fool Blog: No Depression? Really? -- Sept. 30
• Fool Blog: What the Heck Happened at the Close? -- Sept. 30
• Fool Video: What Now?  -- Sept. 30
• Market Meltdown: What Happens From Here  -- Sept. 30
• Dow 10,000 Is Just the Beginning -- Sept. 30

$700 Billion Plan Coverage

• $700 Billion Was a Drop in the Bucket -- Oct. 9
• Thanks, but No Thanks, for the Bailout -- Oct. 7
• Wachovia Suitors Try to Make Nice -- Oct. 7
• Why the Bailout Solves Nothing -- Oct. 6
• Why Opposing the Bailout Hurts So Good -- Oct. 6
• What a Week: Congress Falls Short Of Low Expectations -- Oct. 3
• Bailout: It's On -- Oct. 3
• Dear Wall Street: We're Watching You -- Oct. 2
• Everything You Want to Know About the $700 Billion Plan -- Oct. 2
• Bailout: One Down, One to Go -- Oct. 2
• Fool Poll: How Should the Senate Vote? -- Oct. 1
• Fool Blog: 6 Thoughts on the Bailout Buzz -- Sept. 30
• What Part of the Bailout Plan Did You Miss? -- Sept. 30
• Fool Blog: The Madmen in Authority Have Spoken -- Sept. 30
• Fool Blog: Politics Reveals the Cowards -- Sept. 29
• Fool Poll: Do You Agree With the House's Vote? -- Sept. 29
• The Bailout: Myths, Half-Truths, and Inconsistencies -- Sept. 29
• How We Can Fix a Crisis We Did Not Create -- Sept. 26
• What the $700 Billion Proposal Means for You -- Sept. 26
• House Prices and a Bailout: What Gives? -- Sept. 25
• Tell Congress: We Demand Equity -- Sept. 25
• Bailout: The Sucker Punch -- Sept. 25
• Some Tough Questions on the Bailout -- Sept. 23
• Can We Afford All of These Bailouts? -- Sept. 22
• What This Bailout Means to You -- Sept. 22
• Fool Blog: Paulson's Mother of All Boondoggles -- Sept. 22
• Will the Government Destroy American Capitalism? -- Sept. 19
• The Mother of All Mother of All Bailouts -- Sept. 19

Banking Meltdown

• Citi Surrenders, Wells Fargo Prevails -- Oct. 10
• The Next $350 Billion Hole -- Oct. 9
• AIG's Second Bailout -- Oct. 9
• How Commercial Paper Got Sucked Into This Mess  -- Oct. 8
• Is This Buffett's Nightmare Scenario? -- Oct. 8
• When Credit Default Swaps Meet Office-Supply Swipes -- Oct. 7
• Holding Strong at Bank of America -- Oct. 7
• McCain and Obama's Infinite Playlist -- Oct. 6
• The Battle for Wachovia: Round 2 -- Oct. 6
• Fool Poll: The Fight for Wachovia -- Oct. 3
• Sunset for the Sociopaths -- Oct. 2
• Quit Ceding Power to Tyrants -- Oct. 2
• Mark-to-Market Accounting: What You Should Know -- Oct. 2
• Dear Wall Street: We're Watching You -- Oct. 2
• The Steal, er, Deal of the Year -- Sept. 30
• How to Be Finnished With This Crisis -- Sept. 30
• The Beauty of Washington Mutual's Collapse -- Sept. 30
• Which Financials Will Survive and Thrive? -- Sept. 30
• A Big Upgrade for Merrill Lynch -- Sept. 29
• WaMu Richly Rewards CEO Failure -- Sept. 29
• Now It's Wachovia's Turn -- Sept. 29
• WaMu Gets Failed Out -- Sept. 26
• Still Waiting at WaMu -- Sept. 25
• A Goldman Opportunity -- Sept. 25
• Fed Throws a Bone to Buyout Funds -- Sept. 24
• Buffett Swarms In -- Sept. 24
• Bad Luck for Good Banks -- Sept. 23
• Superstar Investors Name the Top Banking Stock -- Sept. 23
• You Could Have Avoided the Financial Crash -- Sept. 22
• Fool Poll: The Biggest Financial Shock of the Week -- Sept. 22
• Fool Blog: Last Week's Top 10 Financial Shocks -- Sept. 22
• The Death of Wall Street -- Sept. 22
• Health Insurers Are Not AIG -- Sept. 19
• The Day Banks Froze -- Sept. 19
• Banking Brouhaha: Day 4 -- Sept. 18
• What's Next for WaMu? -- Sept. 17
• Has a Run on Goldman and Morgan Begun? -- Sept. 17
• AIG's Failure Is So Much Bigger Than Enron -- Sept. 17
• You're Holding the Bag on Financials -- Sept. 17
• Morgan Stanley Dazzles, Sort Of -- Sept. 17
• Barclays Guts Lehman -- Sept. 17
• The Fall of AIG -- Sept. 17
• The B of A/Merrill Deal Won’t Happen -- Sept. 16
• The Lesson We Can Learn From Lehman -- Sept. 16
• An Open Letter From The Motley Fool -- Sept. 16
• Goldman Feels the Heat -- Sept. 16
• Lehman, Liquidity, and You -- Sept. 16
• Big Bets Gone Bad -- Sept. 16
• Wall Street's $70 Billion Facade -- Sept. 16
• Financial Meltdown: Day 2 -- Sept. 16
• Why Lehman's Failure Is the Best Outcome -- Sept. 15
• Fool Blog: Why Do We Pay Big Money to Executives Who Failed? -- Sept. 15
• Why Lehman's Bankruptcy Matters -- Sept. 15
• The Biggest Financial Story of the Past 50 Years -- Sept. 15
• Roundtable: Why You Should Care That Lehman Went Bust -- Sept. 15
• Clock's Ticking for AIG, WaMu -- Sept. 15
• When Companies Go Bankrupt -- Sept. 15
• B of A Marries Merrill, Leaves Lehman -- Sept. 15
• Black Sunday on Wall Street -- Sept. 15
• Is JPMorgan Back at WaMu's Doorstep? -- Sept. 12
• Who Will Buy Lehman? -- Sept. 12
• Thursday's Wild Financial Stocks -- Sept. 12
• Another Blow for WaMu -- Sept. 12
• Lehman's Worst Gamble Ever -- Sept. 12
• Buffett to Banks: "No Mas!" -- Sept. 11
• Is Washington Mutual About to Explode? -- Sept. 11
• A Scorecard for the Fannie, Freddie Bailout -- Sept. 11
• Fool Video: Fannie and Freddie's Winners and Losers -- Sept. 10
• Lehman Brothers' Feeble Hail Mary Pass -- Sept. 10
• The People Responsible for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- Sept. 10
• Fool Blog: Too [Blank] to Fail -- Sept. 10
• How Did Freddie and Fannie Fall? -- Sept. 9
• Throwdown: Wells Fargo vs. BB&T -- Sept. 9
• Korea to Lehman: No Deal! -- Sept. 9
• WaMu to CEO: You're Fired! -- Sept. 8
• Freddie and Fannie Shareholders: What This Means for You -- Sept. 8
• Paulson to Fannie and Freddie Investors: Drop Dead -- Sept. 8

Economic Notables

• Sick Bits From the Congressional Hearings -- Oct. 8
• How Much Longer Will Housing Be Hammered? -- Oct. 8
• Mohnish Pabrai on Short-Selling, Derivatives, and Gambling -- Oct. 8
• Fool Blog: If "The Onion" Wrote for the Fool -- Oct. 8
• The SEC Has Let Us Down -- Oct. 7
• Trashing Milton Friedman -- Oct. 4
• Bernanke Just Makes It Worse -- Oct. 1
• National Debt: The Race Toward $10 Trillion -- Sept. 30
• First, Let's Kill All the Short-Sellers -- Sept. 30
• A Whale of a Short-Selling Tale -- Sept. 29
• The Worst Kind of Deja Vu -- Sept. 25
• The Short-Sale Ban Is a Fiction -- Sept. 23
• Is This the Bottom? Who Cares?! -- Sept. 22
• The Next Black Monday -- Sept. 22
• The Truth About Naked Shorts -- Sept. 22
• Smiling Through the Sell-Off -- Sept. 19
• How to Weather Market Panics -- Sept. 19
• Breaking the Bank for a Buck -- Sept. 18
• Make the Most of the Panic -- Sept. 18
• Are You Panicking Yet? -- Sept. 18
• Bernanke Doesn't Budge -- Sept. 16
• Dow 5,000? -- Sept. 16
• Give Bankrate Some Credit -- Sept. 15
• The Market Is Drunk -- Sept. 15
• Beating Back the Short Attack -- Sept. 11
• The Bailout, House Prices, and You -- Sept. 9
• Stop Bernanke From Swiping Your Savings -- Sept. 8

Meanwhile ... Buffett Gets Greedy

• Buffett's No-Brainer Buy -- Oct. 1
• Why Would Warren Buffett Stoop So Low? -- Sept. 26
• Fool Video: Buffett Buys. Should You? -- Sept. 24
• Buffett Swarms In -- Sept. 24
• Buffett Buys While the Blood Runs -- Sept. 18
• Buffett to Banks: "No Mas!" -- Sept. 11