Buy, Hold, and Sell!

Chapter 15Buy-Hold Myth #6: You Haven't Lost Any Money Unless You…

No, I didn't forget to finish the chapter title. I started it, but I want you to finish it. You've probably heard this statement a hundred times: “You haven't lost any money unless you ______.” If you're anything like my seminar attendees, you can finish the sentence without even thinking about it. When I ask this question, they shout out the answer right away: “You haven't lost any money unless you…sell.”

This buy-hold advice is brilliant in its simplicity: “You haven't lost any money unless you sell.” Do you want to lose money? Of course not. So you don't sell. You think you're safe that way. Until the day you look at your statement and see that you're down 50 percent, just like a certain garage mechanic…

Shame, Shame, Shame

Gomer's garage was going gangbusters. “Golly!” he said to his cousin Goober. “I think we're going to need another auto lift. I'm going to go downtown and take some money out of my account.”

A little while later, Gomer sat in his financial advisor's office.

“You probably know that the market is down quite a bit right now…” said his advisor.

“It is?”

“About 50 percent.”

“Golly!”

“But as you know, you haven't lost anything unless you sell.”

“Phew. I sure am glad I didn't sell,” said Gomer, “because I need some of that money right now.”

His advisor cleared his throat and handed Gomer a statement. “As I said, the market is down…”

“Sure is lucky we didn't sell, isn't it?…Hey! What's this?” Gomer ...