There’s a rumor going around that the Mutual Funds are broken and just can’t work anymore, for a multitude of reasons. They’ve tried index funds, but these, too, have been less than impressive since they hit the street a few years back, and are now being enhanced… what does that say? Here are some new and/or forgotten ideas that can get your investment program back on track:

1. Abandon the popular averages: Over the past six years, all of the major averages are grossly negative or just beginning to get back toward their best past levels. At the same time, the NYSE advance/decline line has been extremely positive. Additionally, the last time the averages were up, issue breadth was totally negative.

2. And the basics of investing, again, are what? Most investors confuse Quality with analyst expectations and think that Diversification means getting one of every product type that’s out there. In fact, they are basic risk minimization tools that every investor needs to use.

3. Appreciate the power of income: Base Income just has to grow every year, period, for a person to have any hope of keeping up with inflation. That’s right, growing Market Value is inflationary… particularly with respect to hat size, and income paves the road to retirement income.

4. Buy low (within reason), sell higher: Profitable company stock prices fluctuate just like unprofitable ones. The difference is that the former are much more likely to move back up again. Buy quality at lower prices (just like any other form of shopping), big BUT, set a reasonable (10% or so) profit-taking target… and pull the trigger. Re-load, and do it again.
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