The miracle of compounding returns has been overwhelmed by the tyranny of compounding costs.

The courage to press on regardless - regardless of whether we face calm seas or rough seas, and especially when the market storms howl around us - is the quintessential attribute of the successful investor.

We live in a very risky world and investors should not get "carried away" with excessive allocations to equities, or for that matter, real estate. As always asset allocation and low cost and broad diversification will be essential in earning one's fair share of whatever returns our financial markets are generous enough to bestow upon us.

The historical data support one conclusion with unusual force: To invest with success, you must be a long-term investor.

Index funds eliminate the risks of individual stocks, market sectors, and manager selection. Only stock market risk remains.

We need to reorganize our entire system of retirement plan investing and to develop federal standards of fiduciary duty for pension trustees and fund managers. These require "top down" intervention. But we also need investors to look after their own economic interests, a bottom up approach to our problems that is well within our individual power to undertake.

Managed funds are astonishingly tax-inefficient.