The stock market is volatile, should I continue to invest in my IRA?

Stock market volatility is certainly a stomach churning phenomena. Especially while the markets are on the decline our emotions tend to kick in and tell us, "whoa, this is dangerous, let's slow down, let's take our money out where it is safer."
Is this type of approach really the best way to handle your money? Absolutely NOT. If you are brave enough to get onto the roller coaster than you must find the strength to ignore your fear and allow the ride to finish. Really the stock markets as well as all markets are driven by only two emotions, 1. Greed 2. Fear , whether a market is up or down is simply an indication as to which of those emotions is winning out with the populous. By recognizing these emotions you will be better equipped to make wise decisions with your investments. Personally I am a buy and hold type of investor, I have fully funded my Roth IRA for the past couple of years and intend to do so indefinitely. In order to neutralize the effects of any emotions on my investments I have decided to fully automate my investments. What I have done is taken the full annually allowed contribution which is currently $5000 and divided that amount by 10, this gives me approximately $500 to invest during the first ten months of the year, the last two months of November and December are a buffer in case I don't reach this goal in time, in addition if I am fully funded by November than I have extra cash flow during the Holiday season. I have set up inside my IRA a total of 5 mutual funds, which I searched for and researched on my own, I have 1 mutual fund representing each of the following categories,
1. Large Cap Stocks 
2. Medium Cap Stocks
3. Small Cap Stocks
4. International Stocks
5. Bonds
This gives me a nice amount of diversity in my portfolio. Given my age of 27 I have decided to allocate 20% to each category. While many would advise me that I don't need to be exposed to bonds at this stage of my life I have found that the bond fund provides a bit of a buffer against the extreme volatility of the stock market, helping to smooth out some of the ride, in addition they provide a monthly income stream. As I get older I may decide to up this allocation to create a more conservative portfolio but for no 20% is working for me. I want to have the majority of my investment working hard in the equities market.
As I stated my investment is totally automated. This takes the decision making out of hand allowing me to focus on other matters without watching the day to day drama of the market. In addition this automated investment plan allows me to effectively dollar cost average my investments. During up months I am buying less shares of each mutual fund, and during down months I am buying more shares of each mutual fund. Over the long term this disciplined approach to investing has shown through research models to yield the best returns.
At my age even though I have a decent amount snow balling in my IRA , in a sick kind of twisted way I hope that the market stays injured, and in a depressed state for years to come. I have over 30 years for these investments to work for me, and the longer the market stays on sale the more shares of stock I will be invested in. In other words while the market is cheap I hope to take as much advantage as I can.

Please share with me your investment approach. Do you have any recommendations for me to make my approach better?

Is it better to constantly repair my old car, or buy a new one?

Recently I had a discussion with a friend of mine about his new Mitsubishi Lancer. While this is a very nice car I happen to know that he did not pay cash for the car, but rather financed it and is stuck with a monthly payment. I didn't even have to ask him why he purchased it, he came right out and said : " I would rather have a car payment on a new car with low miles, than have to worry about my transmission going out or something major happening on my old car."
And there you have it, this reasoning is in my opinion one of the most used and most widely excepted reasons for purchasing a new car. In the end this reasoning is nothing more than a justification for over spending.
This reasoning is why the average car payment in the united states is up around $480, this reasoning is also why poor people remain poor, or in this instance lower middle class stay lower middle class. Until American's change the way they view the coveted new car, their finances simply will always be riddled with debt and payments.
I'm here to tell you that you can BREAK FREE from this slavery to debt mentality and break the justifications that cause this behavior.
On the surface this sounds reasonable, after all who wants to shell out $1500 for a transmission especially when this cost is unexpected and the timing could be detrimental. However when you step back and take a look at the numbers you will see that PAYING TO HAVE YOUR OLD CAR PERIODICALLY FIXED IS ALWAYS CHEAPER THAN CAR PAYMENTS!!!
The reason I say this is two fold :
1. When you add up your monthly payment, lets say you buy an "economical" car and your payment is "only $300 well south of the average, how much are you paying annually? Well simple math says that $300 x 12 = $3600. While it is certainly possible that in any given year your maintenance costs for your old car may come close to this amount, it is nearly impossible that you would incur these costs year in and year out. For example if this year you were forced to put $2000 into a new transmission for your old car, that transmission will likely come with a warranty, and it will likely be good for many years to come. The truth is you will always save more money by simply fixing your car than you would having a car payment.
2. The depreciation costs on a new car are ASTRONOMICAL ! As soon as you roll off the lot you just lost a big chunk of change. New cars typically loose 30% of their value within the first 3 years. If you buy a $20,000 car ("economical model") than you will loose at least $6000 in value in the first 3 years. It's highly unlikely your maintenance costs on your old car will come any where close to this figure.

So now you have two solid reasons to hang onto that clunker and ride it out for a couple more years. If the maintenance simply becomes too much of a hassle factor stick to a strict budget, set aside a couple hundred dollars a month and save up for a reliable used car , one that you can pay cash for. This type of planned budgeted purchase will put you into a much stronger position financially and will put you one step closer to financial security.

Please share your comments about this subject, I'm eager to hear about your car purchasing choices!