To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires courage.

Whatever strategy or strategies you use, the most critical thing in investing is to take a good map with you on your journey and stick to it no matter what. There will be all sorts of distractions along the road to your investment goals. You'll come upon supposed shortcuts that promise to get you where you're going twice as fast. You'll see and hear from all sorts of people who are telling you that they've found a better way to go than the road you're on. Sometimes, you'll even think that your map must be wrong, and that it has you headed in the opposite direction of where you want to go.



But remember, the people who gave you directions - the gurus upon whom some of the strategies are based - are expert mapmakers. They know how to get where you want to go because they've been there before - unlike most of the people who will be telling you to take those shortcuts or alternate routes.



With the map, you have what you need to avoid the obstacles and bad advice along the way, and to do what it takes to beat the market. Remember, while being a good investor is hard, it doesn't have to be complicated. The greatest difficult isn't in the details of stock-picking or portfolio management; you don't have to be a rocket scientist to produce nice returns. No, the hard part will be clearing those psychological and emotional barriers we reviewed, so that you stick to your road map no matter what happens.

If you stick to your roadmap, you should be quite happy with where you end up.