The Daily Dow FOOL GLOBAL WIRE by Robert Sheard LEXINGTON, KY. (Apr. 9, 1997) -- One of the keys to living a Foolish life is to have one -- a life, that is. Even though our entire forum is devoted to teaching people how to manage their own portfolios, perhaps we don't make enough of a clamor about why we think it's so useful to keep things simple and balanced, in investing as well as life. Balance is a value we talk about frequently in terms of one's portfolio, but it's just as important in one's life. Most of us have full-time jobs in addition to our interest in the stock market (mine happens to be writing for this forum, but it could well be anything). But it's crucial to have other interests in order to keep the market in perspective. I'm lucky in that I came to investing as a passion relatively recently, after I had a number of other lifetime passions in my life, classical music and golf primarily. But that need to keep things simple is more and more important to me as my life gets more complicated. One way to keep things simple, of course, is by using the Dow Approach. But it helps to get the rest of one's financial responsibilities in order as well. When I became an active stock market follower, I was still relatively ignorant of much of the financial planning every individual needs. Fortunately, I was referred to a very good book that covers the basics of financial planning in the most simple terms. If you're like I was then, and needed to look past the Motley Fool's coverage of investing proper for general financial planning advice, I can't think of a better resource than the one that was handed to me, David Chilton's The Wealthy Barber. Chilton's book covers everything from a simple savings plan, wills, insurance, investing, the works. I will caution you, however, that Chilton argues for the use of mutual funds instead of common stocks because he feels the average investor can't choose stocks well enough to make the effort worthwhile. The Dow Approach, of course, proves otherwise. In less time than it would take you to find the best-performing funds from which to choose, you can identify the Dow stocks you should buy. And over the last decade, only nine funds managed to beat the Unemotional Value variation. So, if you want some great advice in an easy-to-read narrative style, check out Chilton's book. Just scratch out "mutual funds" and write in "Dow stocks" and you'll have a terrific guide to personal finances that keeps things simple, and more important, effective. And the work involved in setting up your entire financial life is manageable enough that you can still have a life. Balance, Fool! Balance! (c) Copyright 1997, The Motley Fool. All rights reserved. This material is for personal use only. Republication and redissemination, including posting to news groups, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of The Motley Fool. ________________________________

The Current BTD 10 AT&T <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE:T)") else Response.Write("(NYSE:T)") end if %> *Intl. Paper <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE:IP)") else Response.Write("(NYSE:IP)") end if %> *General Motors <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE:GM)") else Response.Write("(NYSE:GM)") end if %> *Chevron <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE:CHV)") else Response.Write("(NYSE:CHV)") end if %> *Eastman Kodak <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE:EK)") else Response.Write("(NYSE:EK)") end if %> Minnesota Mining <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE:MMM)") else Response.Write("(NYSE:MMM)") end if %> J.P. Morgan <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE:JPM)") else Response.Write("(NYSE:JPM)") end if %> Exxon <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE:XON)") else Response.Write("(NYSE:XON)") end if %> DuPont <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE: DD)") else Response.Write("(NYSE: DD)") end if %> Philip Morris <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE:MO)") else Response.Write("(NYSE:MO)") end if %> NOTE: Foolish four stocks are preceded by an asterisk. Updated Daily

1997 Foolish Four Model Stock Change Last -------------------- T --- 34.63 GM - 1/8 54.50 CHV + 1/8 65.25 MMM -2 1/4 82.38 Day Month Year FOOL-4 -0.58% -2.53% -6.72% DJIA -0.69% -0.30% 1.79% S&P 500 -0.72% 0.46% 2.68% NASDAQ -0.63% 2.27% -3.22% Rec'd # Security In At Now Change 1/2/97 153 Chevron 65.00 65.25 0.38% 1/2/97 120 3M 83.00 82.38 -0.75% 1/2/97 179 Gen. Motor 55.75 54.50 -2.24% 1/2/97 479 AT&T 41.75 34.63 -17.07% Rec'd # Security In At Value Change 1/2/97 153 Chevron 9945.00 9983.25 $38.25 1/2/97 120 3M 9960.00 9885.00 -$75.00 1/2/97 179 Gen. Motor 9979.25 9755.50 -$223.75 1/2/97 479 AT&T 19998.25 16585.38 -$3412.88 CASH $431.29 TOTAL $46640.42

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