Awtry also cautioned citizens to avoid falling for “financial scams that are running through the country,” whether online or through the mail.

“I don’t think people should fear what’s happening. [The bank] has been here since 1903 and we’ve never had problems,” he said. “Everything will be fine. We just need to stay calm.”

Dennis Hohn is manager of Edward D. Jones & Co., 120 S. Market St., a longtime Ottumwa brokerage firm.

“The average investor is always drunk on either optimism or pessimism,” Hohn said.

In 2000, the “.coms were going to save the world” and “people paid for companies not making a dime” and paid 31 times the earnings to buy them, according to Hohn.

“People need to be diversified, to buy quality things and hold them,” Hohn said. “This diversity doesn’t prevent market declines or value declines. But, diversity prevents disaster.”

Too many people put as much as 80 percent of their investment money in one or two things and some folks don’t like new or unique things. Hohn said a “good adviser’s job” is to keep the client’s portfolio “diversified with reasonable expectations.”

“The only way to get ahead seriously is by owning companies. You don’t get ahead with interest,” Hohn said. “Safety, yield, cost, taxes and liquidity — people need to cover those five things.”

If they do, Hohn believes their investments will do well, whether they’re investing in Wal-Mart or a certificate of deposit.

“If you’re with a good company and it grows 10-12 percent, don’t mess with it,” he said. “I’m fully invested. I don’t have much cash and that works.”

Cindy Toopes can be reached at (641) 683-5376 or via e-mail at cindy@ottumwacourier.com.