If you bail out of stocks now, stay out

— -- Q: I'm 47 years old and tired of losing money on stocks. Should I put all my money into bonds?

A: You're not alone. My e-mail box is increasingly getting reader comments bearing the same message: "I don't want to own stocks any more." And that's a normal response, unless you like having your hand in a financial meat grinder.

The stock market has been downright ugly. And, as if you don't already know, the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index has lost about half its value since it topped out in October 2007.

And nothing you've been told about investing has helped you.

Diversification, while protecting you from stock-specific implosions, hasn't prevented you from taking big losses. The buy-and-hold approach has only created deeper and deeper losses.

Dipping into so-called alternative investments, like oil and metals, has been devastating. Buying foreign stocks has been brutal, too. Picking so-called cheap stocks has been disastrous because these stocks just get cheaper and cheaper. And stock pickers and market timers, afraid of missing rallies, keep getting burned over and over again; they're at risk of losing more than if they had just remained invested.

This bear market is in the process of making all investors look like fools.

Given the extent of the pain and lack of safe havens, I understand if you're about to give up on stocks. If the economy takes a deeper dive than anyone expects, selling your stocks could save you from even worse losses. If you've given up on the USA's future or on capitalism, then clearly, you don't want to own U.S. stocks.

But if you do sell, the way I see it, you should take a vow never to buy stocks again. If you sell all your stocks now, you've demonstrated you're not prepared for the gut-wrenching pain of watching capitalism at work. Capitalism isn't pretty, especially when it's on the ropes and looking for a towel from the government. The process involves companies exploding and scattering employees, many of whom start from scratch with new ideas and new ways to create useful goods and services. It's ruthless.