There have been a number of people that have emailed me or sent messages asking how they can get started. Here is what I think. If you are completly new to the market, contribute as much as you can to your 401K and put the money in value-funds. Start early and you'll have a decent portfolio by the time you retire. For many of you, the methods that I have suggested will not work. It could be because you do not have time to follow the market regularly or you cannot follow all the rules at all times. I thinkk I might have something for you. I had a chance to read a lot during the last few months and I noticed that there are some value-fund managers that have had outstanding returns without taking huge risks. Two of the people are Joel Greenblatt and Monish Pabrai.(Monish just paid more than $600,000 to have lunch with Warren Buffett). Monish started in 1999 and has more than 30% return in the last 7 years. This is amazing because we were in a bear market from 2001-2003. He is a value fund manager. I was able to find Monish's buys and sells and might have figured out the way he picks stocks. I think I'll use another thread to discuss value picks and keep this for the general/current scenarios. More later.