What was the first stock you owned?
When I was born, I was lucky enough to get  a gift of stock each year from my grandfather. He was only able to do that for the first two years of my life, but hey, I'm not complaining. One of the stocks was IBM.

It wasn't a big purchase, but it was enough to allow me to buy a used Chevy Chevette after graduating from high school, obtain a Macintosh computer my junior year in college, fund much of a trip to Paris after college and put a down payment on our first home. And I still have a few shares left! Now, if that doesn't show the power of equities, what does?

What is your worst investment ever?
My worst investment choice was buying what I think was then the Heartland Small-Cap Value Fund in around 1998, maybe? The fund was about to close to new investors and -- yes, it was a tip of sorts -- a friend told me I should buy in before it did. Well, I don't remember all the sordid details, but the fund did terrible for years and then was embroiled in scandal and finally merged into another fund, which I still own.

Here's the good news: Heartland Value later did terrific. It gained 70% in 2003 and is up 16% so far in 2006. See what I mean about buy and hold?

That was the last time you listened to anyone else's stock tip, right?
Yes! But here's the problem. I don't even listen to my own stock advice. I was writing about stocks all those years, analyzing them and telling readers about the good, the bad and the ugly. But I didn't buy them myself. At BusinessWeek, writers can't own stocks they write about. But now that I'm in the blogosphere, where I can buy stocks as long as I disclose every move to readers, I'd like to do more stock-picking.

What is your investing success story?
For a long time I was bummed that when we bought our first home I sold IBM, instead of the other stock my dear ol' Grandad gave me. That stock, which was Atlantic Richfield for a while, now it is BP. But the last few years I've been pretty happy I held onto my BP shares.

What do you own now?
Now the only common stocks I own are what's left of my grandfather's original purchases four decades ago. As I've related, I own IBM, BP, and (this one may seem odd), USG. That stock has been through many iterations and I only own a few shares. I almost cashed out when it went into bankruptcy a few years ago, the shares got down to $3.75 or so and my position was worth about $300. But I held on and now the shares are at $107.40. Yippee!

I also own a the Third Avenue Real Estate fund. And most of my retirement savings is in an S&P 500 index fund.

What are you cheap about?
What am I not cheap about would be a better question for me. I would say I'm most cheap about consumer electronics and clothes. And wrapping paper and greeting cards. I really hate spending money on those things.