The Daily Dow FOOL GLOBAL WIRE by Robert Sheard (TMF Sheard) LEXINGTON, KY. (Apr. 29, 1997) -- On days like today, when the market's up dramatically, it's fun to look decades down the road and fantasize about retirement in style. Too many Americans, though, don't believe they can ever get to the good life, and that's a failing of our education system. With some simple discipline, however, almost anyone with time, patience, and foresight, can create the golden years most people only dream about. Perhaps the easiest way to get there is to save regularly. Unfortunately, for our busy lives, the prospect of regular savings conjures up images of rigid budgets, counting pennies, a spartan lifestyle. It doesn't have to be that way, though. You can do it the easy way by simply paying yourself first out of every paycheck. Take 10% off the top of your take-home pay and invest it before you even pay any of your bills. If you can do that every single pay-check, you'll never have to worry about your retirement; it's already taking care of itself. Knowing that you've already saved, you can spend every single penny of what's left of your pay and not feel guilty; you've already paid yourself. Let's see how that can grow over 30 years. Assume your take-home pay is $25,000 a year. Skimming 10% off the top gives you $2,500 to invest the first year. (I'm going to leave out the issues of taxes and tax-deferred accounts. Obviously they will factor into this scenario, but for simplicity's sake, let's focus on the possibility of pain-free savings.) If you earn 20% on your investment, at the end of year one, your retirement account is worth $3,000. To keep things easy, let's assume you get a 5% raise each year, so in year two, your take-home pay is $26,250, meaning you can add another $2,625 to your portfolio. If you continue this pattern every year, after a decade, your portfolio is already up to $91,000. After 20 years, you'll have nearly $714,000. And after three decades of paying yourself first, your portfolio will have grown to $3.9 million. If you can skim that 10% right off the top, believe me, after a month or so, you'll never miss it. The freedom you'll feel, knowing you've already prepared for retirement each payday, is amazing. You can do what you want to with the rest of your check each week (or month) and never have to worry about when you're going to start putting money away for retirement. You can always do more, of course, and tax shelter as much as possible to mitigate the tax burden, but the general idea is easy: Start now, do it consistently, and enjoy life. How Foolish. (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 %> *Philip Morris <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE:MO)") else Response.Write("(NYSE:MO)") end if %> *Intl. Paper <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE:IP)") else Response.Write("(NYSE:IP)") end if %> * Goodyear Tire <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE:GT)") else Response.Write("(NYSE:GT)") end if %> * Exxon <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE:XON)") else Response.Write("(NYSE:XON)") 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 %> 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 %> DuPont <% if gsSubBrand = "aolsnapshot" then Response.Write("(NYSE:DD)") else Response.Write("(NYSE:DD)") end if %> NOTE: Foolish four stocks are preceded by an asterisk. Updated Daily

1997 Foolish Four Model Stock Change Last -------------------- T + 1/4 33.13 GM +2 1/8 57.38 CHV +1 7/8 67.88 MMM + 1/2 86.88 Day Month Year FOOL-4 +1.82% -0.99% -5.24% DJIA +2.64% 5.75% 7.97% S&P 500 +2.73% 4.88% 7.20% NASDAQ +2.10% 1.71% -3.75% Rec'd # Security In At Now Change 1/2/97 120 3M 83.00 86.88 4.67% 1/2/97 153 Chevron 65.00 67.88 4.42% 1/2/97 179 Gen. Motor 55.75 57.38 2.91% 1/2/97 479 AT&T 41.75 33.13 -20.66% Rec'd # Security In At Value Change 1/2/97 120 3M 9960.00 10425.00 $465.00 1/2/97 153 Chevron 9945.00 10384.88 $439.88 1/2/97 179 Gen. Motor 9979.25 10270.13 $290.88 1/2/97 479 AT&T 19998.25 15866.88 -$4131.38 CASH $431.29 TOTAL $47378.17

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