Today I wanted to visit a list of my top ten investing tips. These tips are designed to help remind the individual investing of the top ten most important rules to follow when managing your own investments.
1. Do your homework- If you are managing your own investments, you must always do your homework. Whenever you buy or sell a specific investment, research it and analyze why you should or shouldn't make that move. Weigh the positives and the negatives. After buying a stock or mutual fund, keep track of it and the news surrounding it, don't just buy and hold without doing research 
consistently.
2. Diversify, diversify, diversify- You hear it all the time, and probably get tired of hearing, but it is essential. There is absolutely no point in putting all your eggs in one basket. Diversification among asset classes is the best risk protection you can get.
3. Do not invest with money you can't afford to lose- This rule gets broken quite often, and a lot of people have paid large prices for breaking it as well. You must understand your situation and be able to lose the money you invest.
4. Stay away from penny stocks- We previously touched on this subject in depth. Penny stocks are full of investors looking for a quick mint off of someone else's hot tips. There are no true ways to determine the value of a company in this area.
5. Do not panic- There are bound to be some large market selloffs, but do not panic in these times. The absolute worst thing an individual investor can do is sell into panic. This market will do well over the long run, be patient and buy low, not sell low.
6. Stay ahead of the curve- Investing is all about thinking about the future. You must be able to think about what your investment will be doing in the future, not what it has been able to do in the past. Forward thinking analysis is very helpful in investing.
7. Invest for the long run- U.S. stocks have proven time and time again that they are a great investment in the long run. There may be short term bear markets, but the bullish long-term investor will win out.
8. Look for undervalued investments- This goes for stocks, bonds, and even real estate. Value will never go out of style, and value combined with growth cannot be beaten.
9. Plan for retirement- If you aren't using an IRA or 401k for your retirement portfolio, you are missing out. The benefits of using these programs are huge and should not be taken lightly. Planning ahead for retirement is an absolute must.
10. Understand your investments- The best investor of them all, Warren Buffett, uses this tip often. You shouldn't buy what you don't understand.
These 10 investing tips will help you when managing your own investment portfolio. Do you have any other investment tips that you think are important that didn't make this list?
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