I think the first thing people should do is to forget about the dreams of bags full of profit that could be made from Bitcoin, because there are no guarantee for that. A lot of people are missing out on the real value of Bitcoin, because they are too focused on the profits. For the first time in your life, you can have 100% control over your own finances and that is not something insignificant. <Do not wait for a economic collapse, before you realize that.>
My short term goal is to have 100% control over my private keys and then to store and use my coins, without having to use third party services. I am working on a strategy to hoard 80% of all the coins I own and to use 20% on a ongoing basis.