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To: JJB who wrote (7681)	10/14/1999 8:30:00 PM
From: A.J. Mullen	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 60323

Aus, Limtex, and anyone else at Telecom, This morning I posted a skeptical note, but concluded that I was buying more. I did buy more, but I am still skeptical. The MP3 application was a very pleasant surprise for me. Now everyone is very excited about flash in phones, but how much flash will a phone need? I am sure each phone will need some, but I don't see a great need for cards that must be swapped in and out. What am I missing?

To: JJB who wrote (7681)	10/15/1999 9:17:00 AM
From: Art Bechhoefer	Respond to of 60323

Permit me to disagree with your aversion to margin accounts. Authorizing margin status does not enslave you to a broker or increase your risk. That depends on how you decide to use margin. In this kind of market, I always warn my clients not to maintain margins of more than 25 percent. Margin is the cheapest form of loan for the average individual investor - much less expensive than a bank, and certainly than a credit card. It is a great cash resource for emergencies and enables one to MAINTAIN long term investment strategies, even when there is a shortage of cash. It is also one of the few remaining forms of interest that is tax deductible (from investment income), even when the money drawn on the margin account is used for things like cars or personal expenditures. As a practical example, when I bought my house in 1983 (a year when mortgage interest rates were around 15%, if you could even get a mortgage), I paid for it with a check on my margin account, which at the time had an interest rate of about 9 percent. A few years later, when mortgage rates began to drop, I obtained a mortgage at 8-1/2 percent and reduced my margin account to near zero. Every one of these devices should be considered tools in money management and used accordingly. It does require some discipline to prevent buying stocks just because you have buying power in your account. Margin also has another advantage. When you draw on a margin account, you are not creating a credit report that can be transmitted to or published by one of the credit bureaus. You are transacting business on a secure, and confidential account that goes no farther than your brokerage firm (by law). Art