Do you own Stocks for your retirement?

Maybe in a 401k, a private nest egg you'll use in your dotage, or leave to your wife, or children?

You do own them? Right?

Perhaps we all need to read this.

I once bought a stock. It was in a gold mining company in the US. Highly recommended by a highly recommended adviser. A long term hold, he said.

I took my eye off of it. It was sold to another miner in Canada. No worries. Then it became a diamond mining stock........ in The Ivory Coast. Who had a civil war. Whose diamonds were banned because they were Blood Diamonds. They made a movie out of it.

I still own the stock. Its an energy company. A very small energy company. In a very small country in Africa. It was never worth a lot of money. Now all it is, is a piece of paper, suitable for framing. To hang over the toilet perhaps.