Thoughts on simple investing

Some individuals I know asked me my opinion about investing recently. I make no qualms about my interest in finance and personal finance. That being said, I always get cautious when asked these questions. I guess, I'd hate for anyone to take my opinion, act on it, and be less than satisfied. I usually stick to some simple rules though:

1) Don't invest money you can't risk losing.
2) Make investing a habit.
3) Don't invest in something you don't understand.
4) Invest for the long term and don't watch it every day.

I usually tell people to invest in a blend of investments and review them every 3 months and ask the following 3 questions:

1) What happened with my investments the last few months?
2) I'm I happy with the results?
3) Do I forsee these investments being where I want my money in the immediate future?

Then think of those answers and extend your time horizon out over 4-5 years. It's a bit simplistic, but I guess I don't think personal finance is that complicated. People tend to make it too difficult or sway to much with emotion of what happened to this or what happened to that. Everyone knows the rule of "buy low, sell high", but the fact is most people "buy high, sell low" because they are motivated by emotion. How many people pulled out of the market at the beginning of this year due to the plunge of the market and locked in their losses. This years market returns are in the teens and twenties for growth stock investing.

It just amazes me sometimes, how investing from a personal standpoint works. So many out there selling products that are complicated that they can't even explain or would invest in themselves. They pawn themselves off as professionals. I guess that is what steered me away from personal finance. I dreaded selling a product to a consumer they didn't need simply because it was what the brokerage house wanted to push that year. I love working with people, teaching people, educating people, but I didn't want to sell trash.

Oh well... I guess the best we can do is talk over these things with people we respect and trust, and make the best decisions we can.