For the most part successful investing starts and ends with a plan. Not so much a final destination as much as plotting a long-term course and sticking to it. The plan will have to navigate around obstacles that are certain to present themselves; a tough recession, loss of income, an early need. The plan has to be created based on your long-term need and within the risk level that you can tolerate.

It is my goal to provide you a favorable investing experience so you can sleep at night. You and I put a plan together that you have a great deal of input on. Then peace of mind is achieved because you invest with "confidence". When those certain obstacles pop up, as they will, you'll be ready to meet them head on. It's kind of like taking a long vacation in a motor home. You know you're going to a certain destination and you've plotted the course even before you start. You would never think of changing plans if you got a flat tire or even had to stay an extra day to have a water pump replaced. You may not get to your vacation spot as quickly as you would have liked, but you would keep going in spite of minor set backs.

Many of my new investor customer's only objective is to find an advisor to provide a return above market rates. You'll learn that that goal is unrealistic. Did you know that that goal has lead many investors to poor overall performance? I'm sure you can find an advisor who really believes he or she can beat the market. One advisor I hired years ago told me, "Not only can I beat the market, I can bring it to its knees!". That advisor worked for Merrill Lynch. Because his fees were so high and methods went against several of the keys below, he under performed the market by about 5%.

Experience shows it is foolish to try and beat the market. Did you know that over any 10 year period that only 3% of investment advisors can beat their market benchmark? There is a reason for that poor performance. Watch my video, "The Lies Wall Street Wants You to Believe" and I explain why.

I've listed below three key elements of my proprietary model with a brief explanation below.

This is the bane of most "selling" type investment advisors who believe they can consistently beat the market. The market really consists of over 10,000 professional money managers and 40,000 mutual fund companies and countless other stock market investors trying to find "inefficient information" in stock prices. Because of this stiff competition 97% of the advisors are wrong and that the "market", defined as all those other stock pickers, will win every time. One person can't know more information than 50,000 other advisors.

My model seeks to achieve a return slightly over the market rate. This means that over most 10 year periods of time, you'll have a "much" higher probability of beating 97% of the pros. It's like I'm managing a baseball team with a bunch of "double" hitters and very few "home run" superstars yet every year we seem to always be playing for the pennant.

Most investor customers incorrectly believe that I possess the ability to properly pick the right company to buy or sell and then with my crystal ball can predict when I should buy or sell it. I do not possess that ability.

It is no wonder to me why you might also believe this skill is obtainable by investment advisors because it is the only skill that is advertised. As you know, most advertising is hyped up to get you to buy their product or service.

In an academic study done by Gary Brinson (1) in 1986 and repeated in 1991 showed that stock picking and market timing only accounted for explaining 4 percent of the return in these pension portfolios (during the period of study in the 1986 report stock picking and market timing caused a loss in the portfolios they studied).

In my model, the corner stone that is reliable to explain 90 percent of the time "why" it works, is asset allocation. It is so important that I titled the model using the words "building blocks" after this important truth.

(1) Brinson, Gary P., L. Randolf Hood, and Gilbert L. Beebower. 1986. "Determinants of Portfolio Performance. " Financial Analysts Journal, vol. 42, no. 4 (July/August):39-48.

Brinson, Gary P., Brian D. Singer, and Gilbert L. Beebower. 1991. "Determinants of Portfolio Performance II: An Update." Financial Analysts Journal, vol. 47, no. 3(May/June):40-48.

Did you notice that I stressed the word "your" return. It is appalling to me that many investment advisors think they are doing you a favor by managing "your" money.

Investing is simple. Most advisors want you to believe it's hard in order to justify their high prices.

It is also my experience that you may not even know what your fees are. One of my projects is to get the SEC to create better and transparent disclosure. It is no wonder to me that your advisor may not ever want to talk about this fact.

Our costs and fees, when I have the opportunity to compare them against another advisor that doesn't use my methodolgy, is usually 50% less than other advisor's cost. For instance, the average fund manager cost of those that practice behavior disclosed in the two key elements above is about 2.8%. The average cost of the fund manager we employ is about 0.40%. That is a difference of about 2.4%. That's 86% lower! That extra 2.4% is "your" money as Bill Cosby would have said.