If you had purchased $1000.00 of Nortel stock one year ago, it would now be worth $49.00.

With Enron, you would have $16.50 left of the original $1000. With WorldCom, you would have less than $5.00 left.

If you had purchased $1000.00 of Delta Air Lines stock you would have $49.00 left.

If you had purchased United Airlines, you would have nothing left.
 
But, if you had purchased $1000.00 worth of beer one year ago, drank all  the beer, then turned in the cans for the aluminum recycling refund you  would have $214.00.  

Based on the above, the best current investment advice is to drink  heavily and recycle. This is called the 401-Keg Plan.