ribit,
re: "Im afraid that it's just a huge bubble based on nothing and that it will soon bust"
Maybe it will bust. Maybe not. The problem is, a market that rising while the base currency is FALLING may not really be rising... if you catch my drift.
The real purpose of investing shouldn't be to increase your net DOLLARs, but to increase your net WORTH. Those are totally different concepts.
Not that long ago, it was a pretty big deal to meet a millionaire. There weren't very many. Recently, I met my first BILLIONAIRE. And I have a feeling I'm going to be running into more and more in the years to come.
Meanwhile, "millionaire" has become laughable. My advice? If you folks are healthy and aren't millionaires yourselves, you'd better not even think of retiring - and I con't care HOW old you are. Less than a million ain't gonna cut it.

Gold is $1,581/oz today. When it hits $2,000, it will be up 26.5%. Let's see how long that takes. - De 3/11/2013 - ANSWER: 7 Years, 5 Months