Interesting article here: Savers' plans make back recent losses (from Washington Times, originally via Associated Press)

My quick summary: if you were not STUPID (or foolish, or whatever other word you wish to substitute in there) and didn't rush to SELL when the market was taking its nosedive, then you should be finding that your investments are returning to pre-"crash" levels and even better, you should be seeing some gains in your investments.

I've said before that there are very few things I really understand about the stock market, but the one thing I definitely understand is that you only MAKE or LOSE money when you sell.  Buying and holding an asset doesn't do anything except invest in the asset and holding the asset through the typical highs and lows in the market mean that you've neither gained nor lost along the way.  You only lose when you sell (assuming the market for the asset is down), just as you only gain when sell (assuming the market was up at the time).  If you hold onto an asset and wait for the market to start what seems to be the inevitable rise again you should be just fine, assuming the asset really had some value all along.

It's true that you should still be careful about what assets you invest in and you really wouldn't want to invest in an asset that has no real value and no solid foundation behind it.  Doing that is stupid and will likely lead to a loss of your investment unless you are lucky (and it would be purely luck) enough to invest at the right time and get out at the right time.  If you do invest in solid assets though you should be able to hold them through thick and thin and eventually you'll profit from that investment.