A newlywed sailor is informed by the navy that he’s going to be stationed a long way from home on a remote island in the South Pacific for 2 years. A few weeks after he gets there he really starts to miss his new wife, so he writes her a letter. "My darling," he writes, "it looks like we’re going to be apart for a very long time. Already I’m starting to miss you and we’re constantly surrounded by young, attractive native girls. The temptation’s terrible. I need some kind of hobby to keep my mind off them." His wife sends him back a harmonica with a note reading, "Why don’t you learn to play this?" Eventually his tour of duty comes to an end and he rushes back to his wife. "Darling" he says, "I can’t wait to get you into bed so that we can make passionate love!" But she stops him with a wave of her hand. "First, let’s see how well you play that harmonica."

Q: submitted by Rick

After college i put some money in the stock market. Now my portfolio is 20% its original value. Should i sell now or just try and wait it out?

A:
i bought my first stock when i was 13, have bought more stock at least once a year since and i am now 26 so i can honestly say i've been interested in the market for half my life. i love the market and i love america so it is safe to say that i'm the unmitigated bull. don't let the media frenzy get to you. yes we do face a terrorism issue and some of corporate america's "dressing up" of the books have gotten out of control, but do you not think that these are issues that america can and will overcome? even in the great stock market crash of 1929 (which could never happen to such an extreme degree like that nowadays since the whole market is run by computers now and simply shuts down when it drops to fast) and 1987 we were back to pre-downturn levels within a reasonable amount of time (if you are a long term investor). the only thing you have to worry about is if you invested in a speculative company and you don't think they are going to be around for the long haul. for instance if you invested in someone like scient.com you might want to consider cutting your losses but if you invested in a blue chip like microsoft i wouldn't lose a second of sleep about it. this is the best time to be buying some of america's great blue chips, or even better, a conservative managed tax efficient fund. most people have the tendency to get in the market when it is hot and stay away from it when it is cold. this is the EXACT OPPOSITE of what you need to be doing. buy in the downturns in good solid blue chips, or index type funds to spread your exposure, and hold onto the shit forever! check out the top 10 richest guys in america. do you know what they all have in common? all their companies are public. the one you really want to take a look at is warren buffet. probably the greatest investor of all time. his simple philosophy? buy solid companies with good balance sheets and never sell them. so to sum up. only sell your stocks that are of fundamentally bad companies (poorly run, lots of debt, negative cash flow, all hype, etc..) hold your blue chips and most importantly -- BUY MORE! ;-)

-JD