Middle Class investor

Last year diwali was blast.sensex was more than 20k while this diwali the glooming effect of sensex being less than 10k was felt........
I belive middle class people like u and me strated investing 20 or 30% of their income to equity through mutual fund ULIP or direct to shares with a hope to get better returns than what traditional invetment (PPF bonds debt or FD can return) .This breakthrough was mostly due the assurance given to us by invetsment agents/media.
In the current ecnomic status where a gain of 30% has changed to a loss of 50% ,we have strated doubting our investment plans.where to seek guidance from is a big question now.Economist speak a language thats like greek and latin for common man who is unaware of the financial jargons.Agents are themselves confused on what to say.In a situation where century old banks are vanishing where will common man stand...
This thread is basically to analyse where are we going wrong ...
Cheers Mithu