The sun will come out tomorrow. Yes it will. The stock market will rise again. Yes it will. In the darkest days of 2009, I started buying stocks. My theory: if you believe we are going to hell in a handbasket, then nothing will save you. If you believe that people will still buy food, clothing, cars and computers, then buy those stocks when they are low. That’s what I did back then. And it worked. My portfolio is way up from those scary days.

And so, that’s what I’m doing now. Even when the market plunged another 500 points today.

Call me a Pollyanna but that’s how I play the market and it has worked for me.  In the last few weeks of pre- and post- debt ceiling madness, I’ve been selling my low performers (and taking losses or minimal gains) and buying great stocks at firesale prices. Maybe if I had waited till tomorrow to buy Apple (AAPL ) or Amazon  (AMZN) or Avalon Bay (AVB) or Aflac (AFL), I might have gotten an even better break (and there are lots of goodies in the rest of the stock alphabet, too!).  But while I don’t know where the bottom is nor does anyone else, I do know that these companies are not going belly up. I’m buying them on sale…but it’s not a “going out of business sale.”

As a lifetime bargain seeker who never pays full price for anything, I’m viewing these days of tanking markets as buying opportunities. If all you do is read the headlines in Huffington Post or Drudge Report, you will think the world is coming to an end and that nothing good will ever happen. Ever. Again. You would be wrong.

Stop reading the headlines and news alerts and GO outside. Check out the mall on a weekend and see people driving around looking for a parking space.  Wait on line to get into the latest hot movie surrounded by popcorn and Coke or Pepsi-swilling throngs. Head to your local Apple Store and see that lots of iPeople still buying iPads, and iPhones and iMacs oh my.

Maybe I won’t get to retire as soon as I’d hoped. But the only way to make even the idea of retirement a possibility in the future is to buy low and sell high. So, I’m sticking with my Pollyanna Contrarian Investment Strategy.

Don’t panic. Go shopping. Buy stocks.  See you at the Nasdaq!