1) Of course it's real money. I never said it wasn't real money. I just haven't lost anything until I sell, and if you think I have then you don't understand very basic investing. I could have an emergency that would force me to sell and THEN I would have lost something, but that hasn't happened.
2) No other country is like the United States, so no, I would not tell someone in Germany or Japan or any other country that has had tough times what they should do. They live in countries that pale in comparison to the United States.
3) Your stats are full of crap brother. You're looking at bad times in the market and then making statements that just aren't true. I was in the market from 1989 all the way to the Dot Com bust, and believe me brother, no way did I just break even during that time (even including the Bust). The DOW was at 2,700 in 1989. Maybe if a person was only in the NASDAQ, but I don't invest that way -- diversification is the key.
4) When looking at my spreadsheet of returns from 1989 until the beginning of 2008 (that INCLUDES some down time from the end of 2007 to Jan. 2008 and also the down time in 2002), my rate of return is 11.6% annually. Sorry brother, but your stats aren't right.
5) Who even said I was currently in index funds? I'm not. I HAVE been all in index funds, but currently am not (and I've said that many times).
6) Who said anything about mindlessly holding stocks? I readjust things once or twice a year. And of course, these are not individual stocks, these are mutual funds.
7) Your "Lack of a selling discipline" only applies to people wanting to make short-term gain on stocks or possibly to people who are within 5 years of retirement and they don't go more conservative when they should. This is something Jim Cramer talks about, and it is central to buying and selling individual stocks (which I don't do). Even the stock-picking Cramer tells people to fully fund retirement accounts first before getting into individual stock picking.
8) You can pull out all the crap stats you want brother, but my spreadsheet tells me not only what I've put in the market since 1989 but also the total value, and trust me, even when including the bad 2008, the difference (on the positive side for me) is staggering.