Equity mutual funds are the perfect solution for people who want to own stocks without doing their own research.

What makes stocks valuable in the long run isn't the market. It's the profitability of the shares in the companies you own. As corporate profits increase, corporations become more valuable and sooner or later, their shares will sell for a higher price.

I don't know anyone who said on their deathbed: 'Gee, I wish I'd spent more time at the office.'

If you have the stomach for stocks, but neither the time nor the inclination to do the homework, invest in equity mutual funds.

People who want to know how stocks fared on any given day ask, "Where did the Dow close?" I'm more interested in how many stocks went up versus how many went down. These so-called advance/decline numbers paint a more realistic picture.

The biggest winners are surprises to me, and takeovers are even more surprising. It takes years, not months, to produce big results.

Know what you own, and know why you own it.