Over the long run stocks have the best overall return compared to bonds, treasury bills, and cash; thus, buying stocks is the only way to stay ahead of inflation.

A diversified portfolio of individual stocks and bonds and broad-based mutual funds will provide positive returns over long time frames.

Since no one can predict the future performance of the stock market, it pays to stay fully invested all the time.

The stock market has always recovered from bear markets and gone onto new highs, so patience pays.

When investors miss out on the ten best days, weeks, or months, their stock market returns are greatly diminished. Since no one knows when these instances will occur, it is best to be invested all the time so you are always invested for the best periods.

Over the long term, trying to trade and pick the high and low points of the market to sell and buy, respectively, doesn’t work, and no one can accomplish that feat consistently. Also, commissions and taxes will eat away at the principal.

There are no additional commission costs after the initial purchase of a stock portfolio or load mutual funds as it is kept for the long term.

Investors can buy no-load active and/or passive (index funds) directly from many fund families and not pay commissions.

Rebalancing the portfolio (whether stocks, bonds, or mutual funds) once a year to the desired level of stocks vs. bonds (for example, 60% stocks/40% bonds) will typically improve performance over time as profitable investments are sold and less-well-acting investments are bought. This is best done in retirement accounts since there are no tax consequences, whereas in regular brokerage or mutual fund accounts, every sale will constitute a taxable event, either short- or long-term.

Taxes are nonexistent on stock purchases until they are sold. However, mutual funds do pass on capital gains at year-end. They are paid automatically to investors who must pay tax for that tax year in their regular brokerage account. Their retirement accounts are not impacted by these annual distributions from a tax perspective.