• Your No. 1 investment priority should be funding your own retirement. Saving for a child's education is less important.

• Put money aside regularly, in a variety of stocks and mutual funds.

• Consider several investment vehicles when putting aside money: the 401(k) plan, the Roth IRA, the Individual Retirement Account (IRA), the Simplified Employee Pension (SEP), and the Simple IRA.
   
• When you're investing for retirement, the growth potential of stocks is a better bet than conservative investments such as certificates of deposit, which barely keep up with inflation.

• To minimize the risks of investing in stocks, consider stock mutual funds. Mutual funds limit your risk by giving you a small part of a big basket of companies.
   
• One low-tech investment strategy is to invest in an assortment of index funds. Some index funds aim to match the performance of the Standard and Poors 500 or other market indexes

• Don't expect huge gains each year and don't worry about huge losses in the short-term. Keep your eye on the target, which is long-term, 10 years or longer.

• If you see your investments take a tumble and you can't sleep at night because of it, switch to a more conservative investment strategy, such as a balanced fund, a lower-risk combinations of stocks and bonds.

Strategies Behind Short Term Investing

• If you may need your money in a few years, it's more important to choose less volatile investments.

• Good options for people with an investment window of five years or less are bank certificates of deposit, short-term Treasury securities and money-market accounts.

• For a great deal on CDs, shop online.

• A good strategy with certificates of deposit is "laddering" - buying certificates of different maturity and constantly rolling over the funds.

• Money-market accounts from online banks or, money-market mutual fund accounts from brokerage houses, pay significantly more than money-market accounts at traditional banks.

• If you have an investment window of 5 to 10 years, try short-term bond funds or "balanced" funds, which own both stocks and bonds.

• Tax-free municipal bonds generally are a good idea only for investors in the top tax brackets.

How to Buy & Sell Stocks

• If you're considering a broker, try its customer service number in the middle of a busy trading day.

• Talk to other investors and ask with whom they have had good and bad experiences

• If you choose to do business with a financial planner, or with a broker who provides advice, make certain to state your investment objectives very clearly on the brokerage agreement you will be asked to sign.

• If you ever notice transactions you didn't authorize, write a letter to the financial planner or stockbroker stating that the activity in your account is unauthorized and all trading activity should stop immediately.

• Don't invest in businesses you don't know anything about.

• Don't buy individual stocks unless you just think it's fun to do or you widely diversify your holdings. It's too risky to place your money in just a few companies.

• If you're going to take a major stake in a business, don't do so without having some voice in how that business is operated.

Taxes & Investing

• In choosing an investment, the investment itself should be sound. If it has tax advantages, that's a bonus.

• Don't use home equity loans. If you use your house as collateral for a loan and you're unable to pay back the loan, you lose your house.

• From a financial standpoint, buying a house is not always the smartest decision. The standard deduction is so large now that the benefit of itemizing deductions on your tax return - the main financial benefit of home ownership - has been largely negated.

• You don't have to reinvest the proceeds of a home sale into a new home. So a house has become a good, tax-advantaged way to save money.

• If you can't pay your income taxes on April 15, file your tax return anyway and attach an explanation.

• If you have problems with the IRS, try the IRS problem resolution office. If that doesn't work, call or write your congressman or U.S. senator's constituent service office for help