GOING TO MARKET; AREA INVESTORS SEE DOLLAR SIGNS, EARLY RETIREMENT AS DOW'S ASCENSION CONTINUES TO NEW HEIGHTS.

Byline: Sonia Giordani Daily News Staff Writer

If the Dow Jones can hold up a little longer, Tim Ryan's mutual funds just might get his two kids through college.

And if there's any money left over for his retirement, well, all the better.

``Of course, you never know with the cost it takes to put them through college,'' said Ryan, 55, of Simi Valley.

With the Dow Jones staying afloat of the 8,000 mark Thursday, area investors like Ryan were counting their financial blessings and pondering the fiscal realities of their retirement years.

For Ryan, who started investing in stocks some 30 years ago, the latest market boom was no insignificant sign of where the market is headed.

``It should continue to hold up until around Thanksgiving, and then it will take off again,'' he said.

And with a variety of mutual funds and savings plans under his thumb, Ryan said he thinks the market should remain bullish enough to help him retire from the film industry in time to actually enjoy his golden years.

Local stockbrokers agree that while the short-term risk of jumping into the stock market remains chancy, the long-term return is as solid as can be for people willing to wait out the peaks and valleys of daily stock quotes.

Of course, it's nicer when the returns come painlessly.

Gary Holladay, a 35-year-old investor in Simi Valley, said he was pleased to open up his statement this month and realize he had made 15 percent on his investment - in just four weeks.

``I never imagined,'' Holladay said. ``I'm thinking of buying a house.''

Whereas in the past such prosperity was limited to the upper echelons of the economic elite, nowadays the market is turning even the modest savings of middle-class families into cold cash and retirement paradise.

No longer willing to stand on the sidelines, individual investors are learning more about the market as they search for higher returns on their hard-earned cash.

``It has to do with better technology, better education and better-informed individuals who want to invest,'' said stockbroker Ken Zigoures, a manager at Dean Witter Reynolds in Thousand Oaks.

With Internet sites, specialty magazines and television programs all catering to the savvy investor, more individuals are approaching the market with a better understanding of where to put their precious dollars - and how to patiently count on their return.

In fact, Zigoures said the growth in clientele is driving his own investment firm to expand its offices. He plans to hire 12 new stockbrokers over the next few years to help serve the additional clients the company anticipates, he said.

Sure, the dizzying heights of the Dow Jones and Nasdaq are giving some investors the shivers.

``I'm glad to see the Dow reach new highs, but I am scared it's going to start going down,'' said Scott Church, a 29-year-old sales representative who works in Simi Valley.

But with his stock shares in Harley-Davidson booming (the price has risen from 35 to 51-3/4), Church said he simply can't get the image of a condo on the Colorado River and a comfy retirement out of his mind.

``I'm in this for the long term,'' said Church, who intends to create a safety net of his own. ``I mean, I don't plan on getting any Social Security. By the time I retire, it'll probably be long gone.''

Church is not alone. Even state pension funds are stashing away the cash in the stock market, like California's Public Employee Retirement System, the largest public pension fund in the country, with $115 billion to manage.

The fund invests about 80 percent of its assets in indexed domestic equities, said Brad Pacheco, spokesman for PERS.

``The key for PERS is that we diversify over a broad range of asset categories,'' said Pacheco.

Even the local Ventura County Employees' Retirement Association - a $1.5 billion fund that maintains the pension funds of some 9,000 county employees - invests more than 40 percent of its assets in the market.

``Of course, we have the same concerns that you would have as an individual investor - namely, that what goes up can go down without necessarily giving you a lot of notice,'' said Harold Pittman, a board member with the county association and Ventura County treasurer. ``But we, as watchdogs of the fund, have to look for how to combat this.''

Like the savviest single investors, the fund managers don't get caught up in the daily indicators, instead focusing on the long-term return by diversifying the portfolio.

Such asset allocation, as it is more formally known, keeps the fund afloat in good times and in bad by investing portions of the fund in a variety of ventures - from bonds to real estate - over a longer period of time to guarantee the return.

While the market may be a solid way toward a pension plan for even public employees, there's no such trust in the market when it comes to government revenue.

In fact, California state law prohibits the investment of government funds collected through property and other taxes in the much too variable stock market.

And even some individuals still keep a more conservative fiscal policy about their own pocketbooks.

``Me? I'm conservative,'' said Chuck Boughner, 59, of Simi Valley. ``I have so many friends who have ridden up the ladder and then crashed. And since I'm no better than them, I just don't invest in the market.''