Financial lesson from Dad

Ever since the sh** started to hit the fan on Wall Street (all the way back in March, according to my internal timeline, with the Bear Stearns rescue) I've avoided looking at my 401(k) plan because, well, I'm too scared.

But last night at work, a bunch of my colleagues were talking about it and how much they've lost, etc., so I decided that I should find out what the damage was to my account. 

Basically, I've lost everything that I've contributed so far this year – I'm more than $1,600 in the hole. So my first instinct was to yank everything out of the stock market and transfer it into more stable territory. And when I called my dad and told him about this stroke of genius, he laughed and said that was the worst thing I could do. Apparently, it's stupid to sell off all your stocks when the market is at a low point and virtually guaranteed to go up eventually. 

So, with dad's advice in mind, I'm going back to my original strategy of just not looking at my account – that should help stave off future bouts of panic.