Tips to Guide Your Investing Strategy

Tips to help guide investors on their investing strategy run the gamut from how-to build a low-cost ETF portfolio, to how-to construct the proper asset allocation with diversification suited to your financial needs, to how rebalancing a portfolio can maximize returns.

A few other noteworthy tips that surfaced recently are highlighted below. I hope they are of interest to you.

* Economist and “Sunday Morning” Commentator Ben Stein stopped by “The Early Show” Thursday to discuss advice from his new book, “The Little Book of Bulletproof Investing.” Stein explained how to maximize your income while protecting your savings from financial calamities. Interested to learn more, read the complete story:

* Mr. Madoff spends free time in the prison library on the weekends and often watches movies, including “Lethal Weapon,” according to the former inmate. He said he chatted with the admitted Ponzi schemer on Saturdays in the library and asked for financial advice: “He gave me ideas on my index funds.” Mr. Madoff advised him to diversify, saying he should invest in funds that track the S&P 500 index of stocks “where my money would be on all the stocks instead of putting my eggs into one basket,” the former inmate said. The source might be questionable but the advice is good.

* Lastly, TIPS-short for Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities-offer investors the closest thing Uncle Sam has to a sure bet these days. These bonds have the full backing of the U.S. government and provide investors with returns that will keep pace with future rates of inflation, as measured by the U.S. Consumer Price Index. You can buy them directly from the government, but it’s easier-and a better investment decision in many cases-to buy low-fee ETFs that hold TIPS. Read more.