Worried about the stock market? You must read this book now!
On one of his shows in the early eighties, right after his usual, "Welcome my friends, welcome to my world" intro, Bruce Williams, a popular talk show host of that era went right into the news of the day. I can remember as if it were yesterday, he said, "In today's financial news, you can now buy a non-callable 30-year T-bond (30-year treasury bond) with a guaranteed interest rate of 14.5%. Imagine my friends, if you invest your $50,000 today you will have $2.5 million in 30 years. You don't have to invest in anything else. You don't have to buy gold, real estate or do anything fancy." I did not follow the advice, not because I did not have the cash (in fact my wife and I had close to $100,000 in the bank by that time) but because, 1) 30 years is such a long time and at that age retirement was the furthest thing from my mind, 2) the advice simply sounded too good to be true. It sounded so incredible in its simplicity, it cannot possibly work, so I thought. There must be a catch somewhere. So, I cast it off as satire, hyperbole from a talk show host always on the look-out for ratings. How wrong I was!!! Imagine my friends, had I followed this sound advice from a talk show host, with little risk, my $100,000 would have grown to $5 million in 30 years. I could have retired in my fifties, in pursuit of Marlin on my own 40-foot fishing boat off Cabo San Lucas. Instead, I squandered a big chunk of my money pursuing riskier, more exotic investments.
Though 14.5% treasuries are just now relics of bygone days along with The Wonder Years, Growing Pains and Happy Days, you can still turn $50,000 into $3.3 million by following the simple investment strategy in this book. You will not make the same mistake I made.
Fundamentally, there is nothing wrong with the investment strategy of many financial experts to "buy, hold and stay the course", come hell or high water, but I believe that the component I've added to this strategy of getting out of stocks to escape the bear market that follows a recession will not add much stress and anxiety to your life.
