Why are personal finance magazines advising to buy now?

Yvette Kantrow, the executive editor of The Deal, writes that personal finance magazines that are recommending their readers buy stocks now don’t really know what they’re talking about.

Kantrow writes, “So we trundle down to our local newsstand — we know, so very 20th century of us — to see what words of wisdom we can glean from the gurus of the personal finance press. We immediately feel better; these magazines understand our pain. Just look at their December cover lines: ‘Your Tough Times Money Guide,’ promises Kiplinger’s Personal Finance. ‘Rebuild Your Wealth,’ teases Smart Money. ‘Make Your Money Safe!’ exclaims Money magazine. So we dole out our $12 (also known as three tall lattes), scurry home and prepare to be educated.

“Here’s what we learn from our reading. We need to buy stocks. NOW.

“Knight Kiplinger is. He says so right on the cover of his magazine. So is Warren Buffett — both Smart Money and Money tell us so, and both trot out the Oracle’s famous adage, ‘Be greedy when others are fearful,’ to kick us into action. We are not Buffett, of course, and the mags are careful to remind us of that, too — we shouldn’t try to do what he does, exactly, they say. But we should try to profit from his wisdom and realize that what we are witnessing isn’t just the worst market of our lives, it’s one of the greatest buying opportunities of all time. “

Read more here.