1. Use ETFs to get equity exposure more often than picking individual stocks. 2. Valuation when making purchases matters more than anything else I can think of to your long term investing success. 3. Low Cost passive investing, dollar cost averaging into 5 broad indices (Big cap, tech, emerging markets, ......
The approach to managing and growing your money should be in a way that caters to the kind of time you want to expense to grow it.
If you are more passive about it, and would want it to grow with the general economy, a systematic approach to buy low and sell high could prove better than picking stocks.
Many season market commentators including, Buffett, Munger and now even Ritholtz advocate building a portfolio of ETFs. The main reason to use this over unit trusts or mutual funds? Costs.
Ritholtz provides in this article how to keep investing simple:
