These Popular Stocks Will Take Everything From You

Fifteen years ago, I was 40. I could run, jump and ride a bike for hours.

Today, I have a torn meniscus and two ruptured discs in my back sustained in an accident a year ago. It still keeps me in constant pain. I can’t lift anything over 30 pounds.

I can’t hike. I can’t water ski. I can’t even walk on an uneven surface.

On top of that, I have a slew of metabolic disorders that have required radical dietary changes. That means I can’t eat the things I want to eat when I want to eat them.

No matter how much longer I end up living, I’ve learned that the years that were my healthiest were the most valuable. I think a lot about this as I ponder the fate of the 65-year-olds who retired in the year 2000.

Their accounts were stuffed with icons like Microsoft, Walmart and Coca-Cola. True blue-chip stalwarts of American business.

Each of those stocks would go on to trade sideways for 15 years. That meant a 65-year-old was 80 before they started to see any return on their investments.

All through the most vital period of their retirement years, they watched their health silently ebbing away as they had to scrimp and save to make sure they didn’t run out of money.

How many retirement dreams got destroyed across that 15-year period? How many lives were lost before their portfolios rebounded enough to pay for the life they had dreamed of?