My "guide to stocks" was to have spent many thousands of hours studying business, law, accounting and investments in general. I started when I was 19, decades ago, even before law school or taking undergraduate accounting.
How much effort did you spend in research before buying your stocks? Read my posts on other boards, especially on IHUB's two Berkshire Hathaway [Warren Buffett's firm] boards I mod where I try to set out the essence of prudent long term investing... the kind of investing that works.
BTW, my own portfolio -- all dividend-paying blue chips -- is at record high along with the broad stock market. How are your SAKL and other pennies doing?