The most important key to successful investing can be summed up in just two words-asset allocation.

The most important key to successful investing can be summed up in just two words-asset allocation.

As for worrying about what other people might think - forget it. They aren't concerned about yours. They're too busy worrying about what you and other people think of theirs.

We talk about saving time and killing time when actually we can't do either. We have no choice but to spend it at a constant and flowing rate.

Index investing is an investment strategy that Walter Mitty would love. It takes very little investment knowledge, no skill, practically no time or effort-and outperforms about 80 percent of all investors.

All of us live at the feeling level, and our feelings are in large part a result of the way we perceive things. You observe or are told something, you interpret it, and only then do you have a reaction at the feeling level. The point is that feeling is preceded by perception, and all of us are capable of controlling our interpretation [the associations and assumptions] of what we see. If we can control our interpretation, then it logically follows that we can exercise some control over our feelings as well.

A Financial Research Corporation study determined that the expense ratio is the only reliable predictor of future mutual fund performance.