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Andrew Tobias

Money and Other Subjects

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Andrew Tobias
Andrew Tobias

Money and Other Subjects

Year: 2002

An Stock to Consider

April 22, 2002February 21, 2017

EQUALITY IS CATCHING ON

How come your employer’s health plan covers your better half but not your office–mate’s – doing the same work as you but barred from a legal union because he or she is gay? Well, less and less is that the case. More than half of the nations 50 largest companies – 29 of the Fortune 50 – now offer domestic partnership benefits. Equality is catching on.*

*But not at Exxon. When Exxon bought Mobil, it put the kibosh on Mobil’s progressive domestic partner benefits. Hence the boycott.

TRAPPED WITH MY BROKER

Bernie: ‘My very nice broker at Merrill Lynch has been a friend of my family for close to 30 years and I have all my eggs in the Merrill basket of CMA accounts and IRA’s. Problem is that most of my money is ‘invested’ in money markets. I am a lousy stock picker. So is he. I should buy government bonds but I can’t bring myself to break away. Any advice or comments?’

☞ Blame it on me?

AN STOCK TO CONSIDER

That’s it: AutoNation – AN. Check it out. (Full disclosure: I own some.)

Click . . .

April 19, 2002March 25, 2012

here.

Can Value Line Beat an Index Fund?

April 18, 2002February 21, 2017

COOKING LIKE A HORSE

Brian Adair: ‘If you like ice cold carrot juice, try this: blend equal parts carrot juice and low fat vanilla ice cream (I like Breyers). My girlfriend made me try this drink a few months ago (‘Carrot juice? That sounds disgusting’ was my exact response.) Now I can’t enough of it. I bought a juicer just to make my own carrot juice and I buy a 5 lb bag of carrots every few days. (I’ve been eyeing the 20 lb bag every time I’m in the store, but I haven’t bought it yet.)’

ANDY’S GANG!

Now I see why I remembered Froggie and his magic twanger. It comes from an old show called Andy’s Gang. Thanks to Jack Kirsch and Jon Zich for these links. Click here for the history. And here for Froggie’s page. Hiya kids! Hiya! Hiya!

TOBACCO

Eric E. Haas: ‘I read with interest your comment about Third World cigarette distribution. I remember an interesting press conference about ten years ago. President Bush (the First) was bragging about opening China to American cigarette exports — how this was a great thing for America. What seemed especially ironic was that this was the same man who sent his army to invade the tiny nation of Panama to bring Manuel Noriega to justice. The charge: Exporting addictive drugs to the United States.’

☞ Tobacco helped build this country – you will note the tobacco leaves on the dollar bill – and the industry has had a good friend in the Republican Party, and vice versa. The Bushes and the Doles have gotten on fine with Big Tobacco. By contrast, Clinton/Gore, not to mention Congressman Henry Waxman, were the industry’s worst nightmare. (Remember smoking on airplanes? Ah, the good old days. Those days may have ended sooner had Elizabeth Dole not been Secretary of Transportation, calling for further study.)

TRADING ONE ADDICTION FOR ANOTHER

Mike Lebuf: ‘Forty years ago, cigarette companies were allowed to hand out free samples on US college campuses. But no more. Instead of free cigarettes, students are now given credit card applications.’

VALUE LINE VERSUS INDEX FUNDS

Mike Gavaghan: ‘You’ve written quite a bit about the near futility of trying to beat the market average over the long term (thus recommending index funds). So, what can be made of the claims by Value Line that their ‘timeliness’ rankings are highly correlated, since 1965, with stocks that both outperform and underperform the market over a 12 month period? Here’s a link where they state there case. Are they just playing statistical games here, or is this track record worth paying attention to?’

☞ I subscribed to Value Line for many years and loved those huge looseleaf binders they’d send, with their wonderful research and ranking system – it was sort of the equivalent of the Scott’s Catalog to a 13-year-old stamp collector. And I loved the notion that they could help me beat the market. I visited their offices, met the great man (then 90 or so and the head analyst, and came away impressed. (This was, by the way, well before the invention of index funds.) Then they had a rough patch – right around the time they went public, if I recall – as their ranking system seemed to get out of whack for a while. It may well have returned to whack. But:

1. Following their lead takes some work, and – if you do trade in and out as the rankings change – exposes you to tax.

(Remember, if Warren Buffett had achieved the same astounding annual returns he has, but switched positions once a year incurring tax instead of holding for the long term, he’d be a poor man today! Well, OK, not poor. But consider this: A dollar left to compound at 26% a year for 35 years grows to $3,258. The same dollar compounding at the same 26% — but subject to, say, a 20% tax every year, compounds just 80% as fast, at 20.8% — to $745. So taxes matter. And index funds keep them to a minimum.)

And . . .

2. Consider the results of Value Line’s own mutual fund, which probably uses its ranking system as well as you could. Here’s what Morningstar says of the Value Line Fund: ‘This fund paints by numbers. It uses the Value Line ranking system to direct its stock picks. But this quantitative strategy has churned out so-so performance numbers relative to other large-growth funds.’

So if you really worked at it, and leaving aside Value Line’s not insubstantial fee, you might do a little better than an index fund – or you might not. Especially in a taxable account.

THEY KNOW EVERYTHING

Joel Williams: ‘The last time I downloaded a form from the IRS website, when I printed it out on my printer, at the very bottom of the page it said ‘Printed on Recycled Paper.’ How did they know that?’

THE MEXICAN FISHERMAN

Christoph: ‘Just to tell you. As far as I know: The history with the Mexican is an adaptation of a history from Heinrich Boell and features originally a Spanish fisherman, and a German telling him to work more. It is called: Anektote zur Senkung der Arbeitsmoral . . . which would be in English something like ‘Anectote to lower the working moral.”

Frances: ‘There was a book written by Paul ter Horst around 1984, Cashing in on the American Dream: How to Retire at 35. The story was in there.’

Fleming Bearston: ‘What if the fisherman gets injured? If he can’t fish for more than a few days, he and his family may starve. I don’t mean to be a party pooper – it’s just that this simplistic put-down of corporate life ignores some important issues.’

John Mahoney: ‘Not to be a spoil sport, but doesn’t the fisherman’s reluctance to expand his business explain why so many Third World countries are mired in poverty?’

Chuck Dean: ‘This reminded me of a Depression-era story: A beggar came to a household, which happened to be a whore house, and asked for work. The kindly madam asked if he could work on her accounts for her. He said no because he couldn’t figure. So, she fed him a nice meal, gave him an apple and he left. The good meal satisfied him so much that he fell asleep under a tree holding the apple. When he woke he found that someone had taken his apple and left him a nickel (remember, this is a Depression-era story). He took the money and bought two apples, which he sold. This went on. His business grew and he became known as the Apple King. When he was being interviewed by Fortune, the reporter was in awe of the rich Apple King and said, ‘You’ve done all this without an education. Think what you could have done if you had gone to school.’ The Apple King replied, ‘If I’d gone to school I wouldn’t be here now. I would be a bookkeeper in a whore house.”

Hey, Kids — Free Smokes!

April 17, 2002January 25, 2017
But first . . .

INDEX FUNDS ARE NO WAY TO MAKE BIG BUCKS

Kirk: ‘Many financial writers suggest index funds and large diversified mutual funds. However, these investments only return ‘average’ results while still exposing the investor to overall market risk. If one wants to get rich, wouldn’t a portfolio of 5 or 6 well-chosen and researched undervalued growth stocks (using a strategy similar to David Dreman) work much better? Then when the stock returns to full value, sell and move on to another selection. I just don’t see how a small investor is ever going to make big bucks buying mediocre mutual funds. Also, isn’t this the strategy of Warren Buffett, not to diversify?’

☞ Sure – just buy a few stocks that will go up faster than the market. How can you lose? (Actually, they have to go up much faster than the market in order to compensate for the tax you’ll have to pay as you sell one to buy another).

The only problem with this strategy: What if you’re no better at finding undervalued growth stocks than, say, professional money managers are? In that case, you will have put in a lot of effort, and exposed yourself to more taxes and risk, than if you had just accepted the returns of an index fund.

If you look at the rich folks around town – both the famous ones and the “millionaires next door” – you will find very few who got rich trading stocks. Most started their own businesses and/or relentlessly spent less each year than they earned, putting the difference to work for them in stocks and/or real estate.

I don’t mean to belittle your sentiment. Believe me, I know that slow-but-steady is frustrating. But ‘trying harder’ – while much more interesting (and great fun when you’re riding a winner) – is often a formula for doing worse.

So I would suggest you try your strategy with some of your money, because life is not a business (see yesterday‘s column) and because it sounds like it will eat away at you if you don’t. But with most of your stock market money, stick with index funds.

And now . . .

WHO SAYS WE DON’T GIVE THIRD WORLD KIDS FREE STUFF?

One of the great things the Bush administration has done, trade-wise, is adopt a more tobacco-friendly stance, aiding American cigarette makers in their efforts to compete abroad. As cigarettes are addictive, this could have beneficial effects on our chronic balance-of-trade deficit long after the current administration is history. (Well, it may sound callous, but it makes better sense than encouraging fuel-efficient cars that would cut our oil imports in half. Trent Lott was on the floor of the Senate not two weeks ago making fun of that.)

According to a Daytona, Florida, editorial yesterday, ‘Teen-age ‘Marlboro girls’ distribute free packs on streets all over the globe. In Hong Kong, empty packs of American cigarettes can be exchanged for free movie tickets. In Nigeria, teen-agers win concert tickets sponsored by Philip Morris, then find Philip Morris brands distributed with other freebies there.’

The editorial cites a World Health Organization study last year: Free cigarettes are given to schoolchildren in at least 68 countries.

Cigarette sales in the U.S. have stalled, but abroad they’ve been booming. Philip Morris has seen them rise 80% since 1990. Makes you proud Philip Morris is an American company, doesn’t it?

(For the political-giving scorecard, click here.)

Life Is Not a Business

April 16, 2002February 21, 2017

SCORE ONE FOR A USER FRIENDLIER IRS

Larry Taylor: ‘Well, I took your advice and called in my Form 4868. Got them on the first ring and it was very well done, i.e., easy to follow and to confirm.’

CARROT JUICE

Have you ever even tried ice-cold carrot juice? I didn’t think so. You will be surprised.

TWANG

My computer Scrabble nixed ‘twanger.’ But that can’t be right. ‘Froggie,’ children of 1950’s TV may remember, ‘pluck your magic twanger!’ (No cracks, please.) So, determined to validate my word and and guiltlessly override the objection (without going so far as to ‘ADD’ twanger to computer Scrabble’s memory for use against me at a later date), I went to Google and got this. I have no idea what it is, but it’s fun. Click on the twangers.

A HANDY BOND SITE

If interest rates have bottomed, this isn’t the best time to buy long-term bonds (other than, perhaps, within a tax-sheltered portfolio, Treasury Inflation Protected Securities, such as the 3.375% issue maturing in 2032). But a good site for learning more is investinginbonds.com. Of particular interest may be the ability to get a sense of municipal bond prices, along with the spread between buying and selling.

LIFE IS NOT A BUSINESS

You may well have seen this one already – it flies around the Internet, as usual, unattributed – but it always brings a smile. Thanks to Bill Dunbar, most recently, for sending it:

A boat docked in a tiny Mexican village. An American tourist complimented the Mexican fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took him to catch them.

“Not very long,” answered the Mexican.

“Well, then, why didn’t you stay out longer and catch more?” asked the American.

The Mexican explained that his small catch was sufficient to meet his needs and those of his family.

The American asked, “But what do you do with the rest of your time?”

“I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, and take a siesta with my wife. In the evenings, I go into the village to see my friends, have a few drinks, play the guitar, and sing a few songs…I have a full life.”

The American interrupted, “I have an MBA from Harvard and I can help you! You should start by fishing longer every day. You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extra revenue, you can buy! a bigger boat. With the extra money the larger boat will bring, you can buy a second one and a third one and so on until you have an entire fleet of trawlers.

Instead of selling your fish to a middle man, you can negotiate directly with the processing plants and maybe even open your own plant. You can then leave this little village and move to Mexico City, Los Angeles, or even New York City! From there you can direct your huge enterprise.”

“How long would that take?” asked the Mexican.

“Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years,” replied the American.

“And after that?”

“Afterwards? That’s when it gets really interesting,” answered the American, laughing. “When your business gets really big, you can start selling stocks and make millions!”

“Millions? Really? And after that?”

“After that you’ll be able to retire, live in a tiny village near the coast, sleep late, play with your children, catch a few fish, take siestas with your wife, and spend your evenings drinking and enjoying your friends.”

A Look Back at November 27, 2000

April 15, 2002February 21, 2017

COUP 2?

As I post this at 1 a.m., it still doesn’t seem to have hit the wires – VENEZUELA PRESIDENT BACK IN POWER reads the CNN headline – so in case you day-trade oil stocks or have relatives in Venezuela:

I am told that President Hugo Chavez is in an undisclosed location, and may or may not remain in power. Sunday, he allegedly rounded up 120 generals, along with journalists who had criticized him, including four women – the Venezuelan equivalent of Woodward & Bernstein – who may have been tortured. Unverified rumors were that one had died. The Navy may be fighting the Army. Fuerte Tiuna has been fired upon. The American Embassy is the site of angry protests. It is totally chaotic — which is why it’s hard to be completely sure what of all this is accurate. My source was aware of the first coup plans, but says they went badly awry – the good guys were not where the TV cameras were; instead, and at the last minute, their long-planned coup got, in effect, hijacked by an ultra-conservative group. And now it is a huge, tragic mess. Add to the mix thousands of Cuban advisors and – well, chances are this story will not quietly fade from view.


FILE

Today’s the last day to file Form 4868 requesting an automatic extension to file until August 15. (A good estimate of any money owed is still due today, just not the return.) Supposedly, you can do it over the phone by calling 888-796-1074. I wouldn’t place a large bet on getting through on the first ring. If you do get through, have last year’s tax return handy.

ESTIMATE

For those with significant income not automatically subject to withholding tax – a large taxable gain, say, or income from self-employment – your first quarterly estimated tax is due today, also.

TAKE STOCK – NOVEMBER 27, 2000

It was on that day that I predicted Al Gore would be president – wrong – and that I offered three ‘income’ situations. With the NASDAQ down from 5000 to under 3000 (it is around 1750 today), some people were ready to consider investments that promised actual income.

Free advice is worth what you pay for it, but on that day, we could have done worse. The ‘Criimi Mae preferred G’ – CMM_G – I suggested has fallen by about 20% but paid out stock dividends that would have largely covered the drop. The B.F. Saul real estate investment trust – BFS – has risen from $16 to about $23.50 and paid nearly $1.95 in dividends, for a total pre-tax return of about 60% in about 16 months. Better than a CD. The Ameritrade (AMTD) 5.75% bonds, then 56, show up on my last month’s brokerage statement at 82, up about 45%, while yielding about 10% in cash on the original purchase price. Combining the three, it works out to about a 40% gain. The S&P 500, meanwhile, has fallen about 15%, after allowing for dividends.

If taxes and sloth were no factor here, I might sell the BFS shares and AMTD bonds; not because I know anything, but because the big fun is over. Then again, BFS seems to have improved its financial situation over the last few years, so that its $1.56 annual dividend is no longer quite the cliffhanger it once was. And if Ameritrade doesn’t default on its bonds before they mature in August, 2004, then even from today’s price of 82 the yield to maturity works out to around 15%. That is both a reason to consider holding on and a warning that the market regards these as very risky bonds.

As to CMM and its various preferred series, I have long since given up trying to figure these out – as have, I think, most other investors. Which is one very small, entirely non-analytical reason to hang on. Because when investors get so fed up with a stock they don’t even want to think about it – which is exactly how I feel about CMM – that sometimes . . . sometimes . . . signals an opportunity.

(On the bearish side, I’ve been no fan of AOL, even as, to the derision of many of my faithful readers, I have been its happy customer. Several times in April, 1999, with the stock at 80, and most recently last November, with the stock at 38, I suggested you stay clear. Today, at 20, it’s obviously a lot less overvalued, if overvalued at all. A similar success was GE. Thanks to Joe Cherner for prompting me to suggest that short this past July at 52, now 34 nine months later.)

But if I have been lucky with some of the individual stocks, I seem to be living proof that humans can’t ‘time’ the market. Over and over in this space something bad has happened that’s led me to urge caution at the very moment when – at least with hindsight – you should have been buying. One savvy reader even e-mailed to thank me for my most recent gloomy missive, back when the Dow was around 9000, saying that I had proved a highly reliable counter-indicator, and that, based on my gloomy column, he planned to plunge back in. If he did, he made good money and I am pleased to have been so reliably of service.

PS – It is in the nature of things, as any seasoned investor will confirm, that I remember primarily the recommendations that have done well, while you would remember primarily the ones that did not. So if there’s one particularly bad recommendation I made that you’d like to remind me of, use this site’s ‘search’ feature to find it (bottom left) and then by all means send me an e-mail to complain.

Your Wife, Your Copyright, Your Professional IQ

April 12, 2002February 21, 2017

My (very happily married) cousin-in-law Paul sent me this. As usual, I apologize if you’ve already seen it; and I lament the lack of attribution. (See below.) I would also like to point out that it applies almost equally well to life-partners as to wives, even though we have a different tech support number to call.

Dear Tech Support,

Last year I upgraded from Girlfriend 7.0 to Wife 1.0 and noticed that the new program began unexpected child processing that took up a lot of new space, valuable resources and monetary funds. No mention of this phenomenon was included in the product brochure.

In addition, Wife 1.0 installs itself into all other programs and launches during system initialization, where it monitors all other system activity. Applications such as Poker Night 10.3, Drunken Boys Night 2.5 and Saturday Football 5.0 no longer run, crashing the system whenever selected.

I cannot seem to keep wife 1.0 in the background while attempting to run some of my other favorite applications. I am thinking about going back to Girlfriend 7.0, but the uninstall does not work on this program.

Can you please help me!!!???

Thanks,
A Troubled User

+ + +

Dear Troubled User,

This is a very common problem men complain about, but is mostly due to a primary misconception. Many people upgrade from Girlfriend 7.0 to Wife 1.0 with the idea that Wife 1.0 is merely a UTILITIES & ENTERTAINMENT program. Wife 1.0 is an OPERATING SYSTEM and designed by its creator to run everything.

It is unlikely you would be able to purge Wife 1.0 and still convert back to Girlfriend 7.0. Hidden operating files within your system would cause Girlfriend 7.0 to emulate Wife 1.0 so nothing is gained. It is impossible to uninstall, delete, or purge the program files from the system once installed. You cannot go back to Girlfriend 7.0 because Wife 1.0 is not designed to do this.

Some have tried to install Girlfriend 8.0 or Wife 2.0 but end up with more problems than the original system. Look in your manual under “Warnings- Alimony! /Child support!”. I recommend you keep Wife 1.0 and deal with the situation.

I suggest installing background application program C:YESDEAR to alleviate software augmentation. Having installed Wife1.0 myself, I might also suggest you read the entire section regarding General Partnership Faults (GPFs). You must assume all responsibility for faults and problems that might occur, regardless of their cause. The best course of action will be to enter the command C:APOLOGIZE. In any case avoid excessive use of C:YES DEAR because ultimately you may have to give the APOLOGIZE command before the operating system will return to normal. The system will run smoothly as long as you take the blame for all the GPFs.

Wife 1.0 is a great program, but very high-maintenance. Consider buying additional software to improve the performance of Wife 1.0. I recommend Flowers 3.1 and nothing less than Diamonds 2K. Do not, under any circumstances install Secretary with Short Skirt 3.3. This is not a supported application for Wife 1.0 and is likely to cause irreversible damage to the operating system.

Best of Luck,
Tech Support

Now, before I go steal the next person’s work, I would like to repeat my suggestion of June 20, 2000 – which I am annoyed to see you have not yet fully implemented. Namely: whenever you receive something clever that is unsigned, ask the sender to ask whoever sent it to him to find out the source. You will not, likely, find the source this way. But fairly soon, if this becomes Internetiquette, we will become more source-conscious and stop chopping off attributions when we forward e-mail. Those who initiate these little gems will either get the credit they deserve or, if they choose not to take credit, perhaps tell us why they have worked so hard to create something anonymously.

Fair enough?

‘So it is written, so it shall be done.’ — Yul Brynner

Ok. Have you seen this one? I don’t know if it really came from Andersen Consulting (now ‘Accenture’), but I do know that they split off from Arthur Andersen not a moment too soon. Thanks to Rick Adler for sending it to me:

Test for Professionals

The following short quiz consists of 4 questions and will tell you whether you are qualified to be a “professional.”

Scroll down for each answer.

The questions are NOT that difficult.

1. How do you put a giraffe into a refrigerator?

The correct answer is:

Open the refrigerator put in the giraffe and close the door.

This question tests whether you tend to do simple things in an overly complicated way.

2. How do you put an elephant into a refrigerator?

The answer is:

Open the refrigerator put in the elephant and close the refrigerator.

Wrong Answer!

Correct Answer:
Open the refrigerator, take out the giraffe, put in the elephant and close the door.

This tests your ability to think through the repercussions of your previous actions.

3. The lion king is hosting an All-Creatures Conference. All the creatures attend except one. Which creature does not attend?

The answer is:

The Elephant. The elephant is in the refrigerator.

This tests your memory. OK, even if you did not answer the first three questions correctly, you still have one more chance to show your true abilities.

4. There is a river you must cross. But it is normally inhabited by crocodiles. How do you manage it?

The answer is:

You swim across. All the crocodiles are attending the Creatures Conference.

This tests whether you learn quickly from your mistakes.

According to Andersen Consulting Worldwide, around 90% of the professionals they tested got all questions wrong. But many preschoolers got several correct answers. Anderson Consulting says this conclusively disproves the theory that most professionals have the brains of a four year old.

*

Please note that the title of this website is, at long last and thanks to web master Marc Fest, no longer ‘Demystifying Finance.’ So if you don’t feel today’s column profited you in any way – tough.

Help! My Home’s Getting Too Valuable!

April 11, 2002February 21, 2017

Chip: ‘With the recent run-up in real estate prices, my Center City Philadelphia townhouse has appreciated significantly since I bought it in 1991. The house is in my name alone. Therefore, I can only exclude $250,000 of capital gains. According to a real estate agent friend of mine, the value of the house is now at that point. It seems like this tax law penalizes people who do not move. I realize that moving has its own costs, not to mention that I would probably buy a bigger house. So, once the tax exceeds the moving costs, should I move just to avoid the future tax? I know – we should all have such issues. I realize that I am fortunate. Although my home is my largest single asset and it has gone up in value, I don’t necessarily think of it as an investment.’

☞ Life is not a business, and one should not live it primarily to avoid paying taxes. I don’t think it’s a mistake to think of your house mainly as a home, not an investment. But financially, leaving aside any other considerations (like a sane, balanced life), it would be wise to move – and to the smallest, cheapest house you can find. Use the profit to buy a rental property or stocks or bonds. The less you spend on your own housing costs, the more you’ll have to invest.

Pedal, Please

April 10, 2002February 21, 2017

Peter: ‘Seven years ago I started using a financial planner, on the recommendation of a friend. I told her I planned to retire in 7-10 years and that I was willing to trade some upside gains for some protection against downside losses. [One must be particularly wary of downside losses – they are even worse than regular losses, let alone upside losses. – A.T.] Seven years later, she has delivered one of my two requests – my upside gains for 5 years averaged about 8%. However, during the last two years, she did not protect against losses. Now I find myself pretty much back where I started 7 years ago. I have decided to look for other help. I find my friends are not using advisors, but I don’t feel comfortable investing on my own or spending the time to do so. One friend has suggested that I use Vanguard, which does the investing for the Washington Post where her husband was an editor. She says that I can get some initial advice and then do it on my own. What I found appealing is that she says they use a lot of index funds which I know you are a big advocate of. What do you think of this approach? Do you have any other suggestions?’

☞ It is the right approach. For most people, anyway. My incredibly self-serving suggestion is that you read The Only Investment Guide You’ll Ever Need. If you should choose to buy your own copy at full price and pay local sales tax, you will be set back the better part of a $20 bill. But that’s not much compared to the $25,000-plus you would have paid your financial planner if she took 1% a year and you started with $300,000. (The S&P 500 index funds have more than doubled in those same seven years. If you had gone that route, you’d have more than $600,000 instead of $300,000.) And it’s fine with me if you buy it used or borrow it from the library.

This is not to knock all financial planners. My friend Less Antman, for one, makes a good case for his services in some situations. Indeed, when he reads this he will probably write me an e-mail making that case, and I will happily post it.

But my view is that ultimately you do best if you really understand your plan and if – whether you have come to it with the help of a $14 book or a $3,000 planner – you ‘own’ it. Much of it has to do with making a budget and spending less than you earn and living beneath your means and socking the dough into the Roth IRA at the start of each year, if you can, and never paying credit card interest – pretty basic stuff. But you have to do it. As I have written elsewhere, it’s like exercise equipment. It’s not enough to buy it; you have to pedal.

Vision Warrior

April 9, 2002February 21, 2017

Even nice kids can have their lives ruined by drugs. But how do you prevent that? One man who has made an impact is actor and former drug addict Scot Anthony Robinson, whose shoestring effort is called Vision Warrior. He makes his case at rich kids’ schools and in the ghetto. He’s been featured by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America and the New York Knicks. You should consider getting him to spend a day at your kid’s school.

Hello Scott, reads one of the dozens of e-mails he got after a typical day’s performance recently. (I haven’t copy-edited it, lest you think the typical American high schooler has any idea how to punctuate a sentence.) My name is Bobby, I attended your assembly at Walter Panas High School. I shouldn’t call it assembly, those are boring, your performance was amazing. I’m 17 years old and I’m currently a junior. I’d like to say that i give you all the credit in the world for being able to pull out of such a horrible addiction. You deserve a lot of credit. I would also like to say when I heard we were having an assembly on drugs I said to myself ‘Great another one of these’. Most drug talks are useless to kids and I’m sure you’re aware of that. Your performance touched me, deep inside. I’ll be honest, I smoke weed once in a while, probably once a week or so. I also drink once about once a month. I should say used to, after watching you give your heart to us to make us understand, I feel I owe it to you and to myself, my friends, family, and all loved ones to stop that garbage. I plan on staying straight, I’m very into sports and after realizing how weed can get me into other things no matter how strong I think I am menatally, I decided that stopping it all right now is the only way to get the best out of my life. My vision: to get through the rest of life drug free, graduate college and become a teacher. Along with that I would like to start my own family and keep a strong friend base. I plan on being the warrior that you taught us about and I am going to fight for my vision. My ship will stay strong, unsinkable. Thank you for teaching me what many others could not. Sincerely, your friend Bobby

His name actually isn’t Bobby. Just to be safe, I changed it, lest someone who knows him see this and put two and two together.

Here’s what Scot got from the young man who organized his visit:

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Today was a very strange day. People that I haven’t talked to in years.. teachers that have disliked me.. came up to me and thanked me.. Kids told me that they really got a lot out of it. A bunch of teachers got together and went to the principal and told her how we should have you back next year for the younger kids.. (I was also able to get the superintendent to watch some of the presentation)

I know that this happens wherever you go– But I just wanted to thank you for trusting me since the day we met. Acting is still what I’m passionate about But I often hope that I’ll find a way to help people as much as you do. You’re my light-house, bro

Jeremy Redleaf
J-dawg

‘Hey Scott,’ writes a third . . .

I am from Walter Panas High School and I just want to really thank you for changing my life today. You made me think of life in a whole new prospective. Thanks for caring about use because I know from talking to a lot of my peers that you caring for use that much changed their lives as well as mine. I was not goin to go to the assembly but I am sure happy I went because I would have never gottin the plessure of meeting you and knowing your story. I was going to tell you after but you were surrounded by kids. I just wanted to thank you again for changing my life. God Bless.

Jaime
11th Grade

I e-mailed Scot for his own report. He wrote:

It was fantastic. The audience was very engaged and the spirit in the auditorium was inspiring. I spoke to a few classes afterwards and those sessions were very valuable to help them process some of their feelings & challenges. I got 59 emails that night and they continue to trickle in.

They wound up paying me $900 with another $300 on its way. Jeremy did some extra soliciting as he said he felt bad…..I told him not to worry about it but he insisted…..He is truly representative of the very best of what his generation has to offer…he will be and already is a model citizen, I am proud to know him!

Anyway, some other things on the horizon, I will film the second part of the Science Times Documentary for National Geographic today at 4pm…..they will ask me questions about addiction and add that to snippets from what they filmed from Vision Warrior at Friends Academy last month. Things are flowing and a lot of potentially exciting stuff is coming up.

So how does this all work? Well, it’s certainly not the solution to the drug problem, because Scot is just one guy, and not easily replicated. But if he could present to 150 schools a year, that might touch 100,000 kids. And in the course of a four-year high school cycle, 400,000. To maximize his effectiveness, he might one day be able to hire a staffer to handle logistics and help with the e-mail, referring kids with special problems and requests to the right resources.

In the meantime, people go to his website and send him e-mail. Those who can, pay him $2,500 plus expenses (or contribute it tax-deductibly through a 501c-3 he’s affiliated with). Those who can’t, pay less. Those who really can’t, pay nothing. This is, of course, no way to run a railroad, but Scot is not running a railroad.

He does most of his presentations in and around New York and Los Angeles, but with enough planning could make efficient visits elsewhere – e.g., a week in Cleveland to visit four different schools.

*

Everyone has his or her own views on drugs. Personally, I don’t think tobacco or alcohol – or marijuana – should be illegal. Prohibition doesn’t work, and in a free country, adults should be allowed to pick their poison. But I don’t think we should promote their use, especially not tobacco, a highly addictive carcinogen that, when used exactly as intended (i.e., not abused, as alcohol often is) causes widespread illness and premature death. I’m glad NBC dropped plans to run liquor commercials. I sure wish Rolling Stone would stop running tobacco ads.

If marijuana ever were legalized, I would favor making it OK for adults to grow and give to friends, but not to sell or store in large quantity – let alone advertise with cartoon characters on billboards. Giving or selling it to minors would carry significant fines, as would ‘giving’ it as part of any commercial promotion or transaction (‘free with every mocha latte!’ ‘free with every pack of Marlboros!’ ‘free with every manicure!’). The one exception would be nonprofit cooperatives formed for the purpose of supplying medical marijuana to patients unable to grow it or get it from friends.

As I say, everyone has his own views. You – and Scot, for that matter – may not agree with mine. What most of us would agree on, though, is that high school kids shouldn’t smoke, drink or – worst of all – do drugs. Vision Warrior seems to be effective in getting kids to agree.

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