Tuesday, July 23, 1996
My Summer Vacation
by MF Buck

Yep, that's me in the picture. What a fabulous vacation that was! I'm the one wearing the Fool cap, standing in front of the _____________. (Fill in the blank.)

We've all seen pictures that remind us years later about the great times we had on vacation, about the wonderful places we saw and the exciting things we did. But when was the last time you saw a picture of the time you sneaked a peek at the newspaper's stock listings? And I bet no one ever said "Cheese" while checking out the portfolio on the laptop.

Fools, that's not because laptops and newspapers aren't the kind of subjects you blow up for an 8 X 10 glossy after the vacation is over. It's because we feel so guilty about looking up our stocks while we're on vacation that we don't let anybody know we're doing it.

Huh? Why would a Fool want to check out the stocks during a vacation? We're long-term investors. We think in terms of decades, not weekly vacations. Yeah, right!

This vacation was going to be different for me. I was bound and determined just to enjoy the time with my wife during our vacation. Forget about the market. Forget about our stocks. This isn't a time to be thinking about making money. It's a time to be spending it and loving every vanishing dollar of it.

OK, so what if I caved in just before we went to the airport. Ummm, that's the departing plane, not the returning one. Anyhow, just before the cab arrived, Joellen was in another room where she couldn't see me. So I quickly brought up our portfolio on the computer and jotted down the number of shares we own of each stock. (I hope she doesn't read this Fribble because I never told her I did that.)

With the record of our stocks furtively tucked away in a side pocket of the suitcase, off we went on our summer vacation. I lasted about three days without any news of our investments. Showing symptoms of withdrawal, I needed just a quick fix. I thought that one newspaper was all I needed. Nothing more. A quick review of our stocks and I wouldn't need another one for the rest of the vacation.

"Joellen, I'd like to check out the sports. I think I'll pick up a USA Today in the hotel lobby. I'll be back in a little bit." Ah, it worked! Mind you, she wouldn't have cared if I had mentioned all the reasons I really wanted the paper. I was the one who cared. I was still in denial.

A couple of days later I was reading the paper again when Joellen unexpectedly woke up early from a lazy afternoon's nap, the kind you can only take when you're on vacation. "How's Iomega doing?" she said with a smug grin on her face. She was on to me.

"Down $6 yesterday. Up $5 today," I said in my nonchalant, long-term investing tone, as if I wasn't doing anything wrong.

It went pretty much like that throughout the rest of the vacation. The only difference was that the number of days between checking the stocks became fewer and fewer. But I only bought newspapers, no finance magazines. After all, I was on vacation and I was in control.

Control? That makes it sound like a habit. It's not as if I should go to an Investors Anonymous meeting and announce to everyone that "I'm Mike Buckley and I'm a long-term investor." (Somehow I don't think it would come out right to say, "and I'm a Fool.")

Finally we arrived at the airport to return home. Now that the vacation was essentially over, it was OK to pick up Forbes, Smart Money and anything else I could get my hands on. I'll be able to ...

Hold on just a doggone minute! Whaddya mean, "Now it's OK?" It's OK any time! Long-term investing is fine in the sense that we don't need to check up on our stocks every day. But what if we want to? What if it's fun to do that. Aren't we supposed to be able to do fun things while we're on vacation? Isn't that why we take vacations, to have fun?

Fools, stand up for your rights and unite! Stick your head out a window and yell at the top of your lungs, "If I want to take a few minutes each day to check out our stocks while I'm on vacation, that's exactly what I'm gonna do because it's MY vacation, too!"

[Editor's note: MF Buck (Mike Buckley) is currently recuperating in a ward after undergoing a series of treatments for anxiety. The last time he was seen in public, men in white coats were unsuccessfully trying to wrestle the financial pages of a newspaper from his clutches. He was at the beach.]

Transmitted: 7/23/96