In troubled financial times like these you might need a safe haven.  What better place then the World’s Safest Potty?  You can feel safe and you can easily review your financial portfolio that is probably already in there waiting for you. 

Anne and I have some of our investments with Merrill Lynch, so this financial crisis has hit home today.  Our broker sent out an email to his clients.  It was part cautionary and part comforting.  I guess we should be grateful that the Bank of America took over Merrill Lynch.  At least, Merrill unlike Lehman won’t go through bankruptcy.  I heard tonight on NPR that the next shoe to drop, AIG, has already asked the state of New York to allow them to use their customer’s assets as collateral for sought after bail out loans.

My brother Chris told me yesterday about one of his co-workers who just bought a house for $350K, that a year ago was worth $700K.  Good for his co-worker, but bad for the seller who was most likely a bank that had foreclosed on the property.  It is exactly this loss of wealth that is fueling this financial crisis.  That is California and not the Midwest, but even here in Saint Louis, property values have declined and the number of for sale signs seem to grow.

I’ll leave you with some of my broker’s advice:

I still adhere to my belief in the 3 Investment Principles of the Intelligent Investor; faith in the future, patience to invest and a disciplined investment strategy.  And I also adhere to the 3 Investment Practices of the Intelligent Investor; Asset Allocation, Diversification and Periodic Portfolio Rebalancing. … Yet the unwinding of the global debt crisis continues. … Till then “Be Careful Out There”.

At this point do I have a choice?  😉