Scott Adams "everything you need to know about investing":
Quote:
1. Make a will
2 .Pay off your credit cards
3. Get term life insurance if you have a family to support
4. Fund your 401k to the maximum
5. Fund your IRA to the maximum
6. Buy a house if you want to live in a house and can afford it
7. Put six months worth of expenses in a money-market account
8. Take whatever money is left over and invest 70% in a stock index fund and 30% in a bond fund through any discount broker and never touch it until retirement
9. If any of this confuses you, or you have something special going on (retirement, college planning, tax issues), hire a fee-based financial planner, not one who charges a percentage of your portfolio
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Basically, you don't know enough to do better than the above (with any reliability), and you aren't special enough that other financial instruments are worthwile.
(Scott Adams is the author of Dilbert)