[Dean]

Congress is as much if not significantly more to blame than Bush. They are the ones who legislate, tax and spend...

As an avid CNBC watcher, I can tell you that yes, the economy has slowed, but so far GDP has remained positive. (Technical definition of recession is 2 consecutive quarters of negative GDP)

Don't get me wrong, slow downs hurt, but recessions are way worse.

Options and other investment in the company you work for are always sketchy. All the media hype about Enron and Bear Stearns employees losing their jobs and their retirement fail to mention that the later is their own fault.

Having any significant level of investment in the company you work for is quite a risky strategy. If the company even just does poorly, you can lose your job as well as much of your investment.

A diversified portfolio (not an index fund IMHO) remains the first rule In investing.

Another is don't be a pig, take profits and reallocate/balance your portfolio regularly.

People love to ride their winners well into the danger zone and get pissed when they pull back or worse, plummet. The same holds for stock options.

My brother is a great example. He worked for Oracle during the Dot Com bubble and rather than exercising his options and paying off his house(s), he only did enough to add a pool and the rest became worthless in the bust.

I had a single stock that was up 40% in 4 months and likely headed for a double, but I just pulled almost all of that gain out as it had become too large a percentage of my portfolio. Investing is about discipline and not emotion. Don't think I am an investing genius though, I have many that are down, but overall, I am ahead of the averages which I am marginally happy about, but they and I are down YTD.