Ben Stein How Not to Ruin Your Life

roy.tyrell - Saturday, March 29, 2008, 3:19PM ET  Report Abuse

• Overall: 1/5

I recently read that since 1999, you would have earned a higher return in tresuries, or just about any other fixed income investment, than in the stock market. be wary of anyone pimping the market right now. stockholders are the last in line to get anything when your company goes tits-up. the fed wont save everyone like BSC - just ask enron bagholders. smart money is in cash right now. buy when this thing hit 8000 --- and it will

eclaptonfan - Monday, March 24, 2008, 1:38PM ET  Report Abuse

• Overall: 2/5

It looks like a lot of people are taking the bait Mr. Stein.....The market fluctuations lately must mean there are a lot short-sellers taking over. The way to rescue the US economy is to have Harvard divest half of it's endowment from foreign companies.....yes even Israeli ones..... and invest in US Treasuries......maybe other ivy leaguers like Yale can do this too.

Duck - Saturday, March 15, 2008, 2:38PM ET  Report Abuse

• Overall: 5/5

Ben, You hit the nail on the head. If what you said wasn't true there would be no stock market and no US or world economy. The fact that we're here reading your article is proof of your claims.

Turd Ferguson - Friday, March 14, 2008, 2:59PM ET  Report Abuse

• Overall: 1/5

Just got around to re-reading this garbage. The S&P is down over 5% as of now (still a ways to go down from here) since he wrote, so I guess his #2 sarcastic statement was actually right - that is if you want to maximize your returns. This time is not different, in fact it follows closely with the Great Depression - individuals and investment banks way overleveraged (thanks to reduced regulations in both instances). By the way, Buffett has almost all of his 'short term money' on the sidelines. He is NOT investing right now in anything he is not long on. Well, I know I can get back in before the next big upward move - it sure isn't going to happen anytime soon. Ben really is out of it. When he says he is a permabull, he is not kidding - by the way the markets have gone sideways for more than 20 year clips. There is no guarantee the market will be higher in a decade than it is today. Considering the 'financial engineering' of derivatives, the whole banking system could easily collapse. Seriously, scary stuff.

proxyguy - Wednesday, March 12, 2008, 3:43PM ET  Report Abuse

• Overall: 5/5

Wow, reading the comments here are very...well, I'm not sure if it's entertaining or alarming. What do we here? Every single item that Ben warns about. A few random remarks: - Ben Stein is not just an actor. The guy has a varied background. He's also a very smart man. You don't become the class valedictorian of Yale by being stupid. - Warren Buffett does suggest that the average investor buy index funds and hold them. - Warren Buffet's rule #1 is to not lose money. He does this by investing in what he knows and holding it for damn near forever. He's not losing money if he's not selling at a loss, regardless of what the daily value is. There are numerous studies which show us that the average mutual fund returns something like 10% and the average mutual fund investor makes something like 2.8%. Why is that? Because they panic; because they believe that this time it is different; because they believe they will know when to get back in the market. Still, it could be different this time. We won't know for 10-15 years. Me? I'm staying in. I'm also diversified into commodities, bonds, foreign bonds, foreign stock, TIPS, and real estate (foreign and domestic). If I were really nervous, I'd buy some inverse/short funds as a hedge.