4. The No-Sweat Guide to Retirement (and other) Investing

The tips, tricks, suggestions, and techniques I've given you so far have, I hope, made your life easier and saved you some money.

The advice I'm about to give, though, is really going to simplify your life and save you a fortune. Here it is.

Don't try to beat the market.

By "market," I mean the stock market in all its permutations: the New York Stock Exchange, the NASDAQ, and all the international exchanges. These are places where investors buy and sell stocks, which are little pieces of ownership in companies.

Most of us need to invest in stocks if we ever hope to retire. That's because of all the investments in the world, only stocks have consistently delivered high-enough returns to not only beat inflation but to build nest eggs capable of supporting people in their retirement years.