What I have done is found a very good newsletter as well and subscribed to it. It is the Motley Fool Stock Advisor. Between this and the online community at their website, Fool.com. It really helps shorten the learning curve and identify possible companies I may be interested in. Also impressive is the recorded purchase and sale of every recommendation the newsletter has made in its history, good ones and bad. The track record is impressive.

While not really secrets, here’s the common sense approach I’m taking. It’s not about speculating but buying companies because they are getting it right. They are companies doing business in areas I am familiar with and enjoy. Here’s some of my guidelines I have learned:

• an attitude that when you buy stock in a company, you are buying the business, not a ticker. I am interested in a company’s prospects, future, and management. I am not interested in wild speculation. A companies past earnings history is very important.
• a contrarian approach. I want to find these businesses when the market isn’t interested in them. This means they will be selling at a discount.
• I have learned that you can mange your money and plan your retirement. A broker is not necessary, especially if you are not dealing with large amounts of money. Excellent information is now available, anytime, online.

I encourage you to get a plan. Read, study and commit to something. (Like an hour per week.) Even saving a little can be powerful if you begin early.

Rule No. 1: Never lose money.

The great personal fortunes in this country weren’t built on a portfolio of fifty companies. They were built by someone who identified one wonderful business.

Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rolls Royce to get advice from those who take the subway.

It is not necessary to do extraordinary things to get extraordinary results.

You should look at stocks as small pieces of a business.

You should invest in a business that even a fool can run because someday a fool will.

With enough inside information and a million dollars, you can go broke in a year.

If calculus or algebra were required to be a great investor, I’d have to go back to delivering newspapers.

Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing.

I buy stocks when the lemmings are headed the other way.

I buy expensive suits. They just look cheap on me.

These are just some of the gems found in the book The Tao of Warren Buffett.

Here are 7 things I’ve done in the last year to create a plan of investing with the years I have ahead of me.

1. started reading about successful strategies, time proven (Anything about Buffett such as The Essays of Warren Buffett : Lessons for Corporate America and Rule #1: The Simple Strategy for Successful Investing in Only 15 Minutes a Week! by Phil Town.
2. picked out some businesses I really liked and did a little studying on their numbers
3. subscribed to an online newsletter that for the last 20 years has followed an investment strategy mirroring the Buffett way and has publically documented results that are stellar.
4. purchased 100 shares of Netflix in July. (It’s up almost 70% since that time.)
5. kept away from any advice to get rich quick or advice from anyone that is broke. (Please note I am advising you consider not my words but the words of some pretty successful guys here instead.)
6. opened a Roth IRA
7. a commitment to live frugally, avoiding new debts as much as possible
8. continue to read for investment knowledge, personal growth and inspiration (just finished Max Lucado’s 3:16: The Numbers of Hope.)

I am optimistic that staying the course with this plan will provide a retirement I can enjoy. I hope you will educate yourself and welcome your perspectives or findings. I am not suggesting there is only one way to go, but after 50 years, I find it time to listen to wise advisors when it comes to money and investing.

Do not let the years make you cynical. Stay in the game. Read, think, and be encouraged by taking steps forward.

Over the years I have had my share of investment strategies. Regretfully, when I was in my early 20s, I fell for a get rich quick scam. I invested $1200 into silver options in the early 80s. Bad idea. The “advisor” was almost guaranteeing a huge return. It was a total sham. The price began dropping right after I purchased the option. It turned out to be a total loss. As a side, a few years later I received a certified letter informing me that their was a class action suit being filed against this company for fraudulent practices. Evidently, there were some people that had lost a lot more money than I and were trying to do something about it.

As bad of taste as that experience left me with, I learned my lesson. I spent the next years putting my money on growth stock mutual funds. Not a terrible choice. These were the highest rated no load mutual funds. Those funds ended up paying off debt and funding two businesses.

As fate would have it, last year I caught this interview on television with a guy named Phil Town. He had just written the New York Times bestseller Rule #1, a book detailing how he literally turned $1000 into $1,000,000 (million). At first I thought he was just another scam artist, until I started listening to what he was saying. There was no hype, no fluff. He talked about the wisdom of investing in companies that are rock solid. Companies that had discounted prices on their stock. Companies that had a long history of great returns. It was the Buffett philosophy of buying interests (stock) in great companies. I bought the book and carefully considered its contents. It just doesn’t talk about it, it shows you how. Jim Cramer, of Mad Money, gave a glowing endorsement by writing Rule #1 may be the clearest read that tells you precisely how to do it.

It has provided a blueprint for my investment strategy for the next 20 years. From 50 to retirement. I will be sharing my success or failure here with you. I hope to encourage others that have limited time left to invest and build up their savings.

I took action last July. I had a small amount of money (2k) that I had sitting in a retirement fund doing nothing. I moved it into a Roth IRA and invested in a company I chose based on the guidelines I have recently learned.

The guidelines in a nutshell? To quote Warren Buffett, here’s the process. “Our method is very simple. We just try to buy businesses with good to superb underlying economics run by honest and able people and buy them at reasonable prices. That’s all I am trying to do.”

As of today, that investment is up 70% in the past 8 months. What is the stock? How did I come to choose it? That in a post coming very soon.