There are only two legal approaches to investing - available to average people and professionals alike - that have been shown to work over very long periods of

There are only two legal approaches to investing - available to average people and professionals alike - that have been shown to work over very long periods of time. 1) Buy the S&P500 via a very low cost index fund. Buy consistently, effectively cost averaging, over the long-term. Don't worry about valuations, timing, bulls or bears, recessions or euphoria, as that will all smooth out. Just keep buying over time. This is what works best for ~95%+ of all people and is one of the few ways to predictably build wealth (assuming enough income above expenses over decades of time). 2) The Ben Graham school of value investing. [1] This some takes time to learn and integrate. You have to build up a skill at understanding what represents a good value and you have to be able to have considerable discipline, understanding that you only need a few hits every so many years to fairly rapidly compound capital (ie that you don't need to constantly hit homeruns, so you properly grasp that you can safely afford to be patient and do not need to FOMO participate in market stupidity; with the first rule being do not destroy capital). This is why so few professional money managers on Wall Street can beat the market over time (despite all they have access to) and skilled independent value investors can. There is a system that works and most of the Wall Street players do not have the time (they want/need results asap) or discipline to put it into action. [1] The Superinvestors of Graham and Doddsville [PDF] https://www8.gsb.columbia.edu/sites/valueinvesting/files/files/Buffett1984.pdf https://www8.gsb.columbia.edu/sites/valueinvesting/files/fil...