Cautionary tale. True story.

I worked for eight years for the telephone company. Pacific Northwest Bell (now "Qwest" . . . I think. . . .) was a subsidiary of AT&T. As an employee, a small part of my salary was given to me as AT&T stock. No choice in the matter. Okay, fine. AT&T is (was!) a blue-chip stock. I let the little bits of stock accumulate until I quit Ma Bell to work somewhere else.

I continued to leave it alone, checking on it from time to time to see what it was worth. It fluctuated a bit, but noodled along for years at around $3,000.00. I figured I'd just leave it there, and it would be a nice little bonus nest-egg if I needed something extra when I retired (which I have since done).

Thank God I wasn't relying on it--or any investment like it. Last year I received notice from whatever the hell company has taken over AT&T, informing me that they were going to close my account because it was too small to bother with, and I could either buy a wad more stock, or I could cash out. Not having that much in discretionary funds, I chose to cash out.

Several weeks later, I receive a check for the total value of the stock:    $224.00.

Various mergers and divestitures and re-mergers and buy-outs and general farting around had managed to reduce my $3,000.00 in solid, reliable, blue-chip stock to less that 10% of its value.

Having opted to be a musician, I was never in a position to save and/or invest a whole lot of money. I do have a few investments, such as a mutual fund (sold to me as highly reliable by a reputable investment firm), which fluctuates and pulses like a dying dwarf star. As a result, my major source of income right now is my monthly Social Security check.

So much for "personal retirement accounts." As I said, thank God I wasn't relying on it.

Don Firth