Well, maybe not easy, but there are basic fundamentals. In the belief that we all need to be reminded of them regularly, here are some of the secrets that have helped me and my clients over the years:1. Focus on values. I've known people who made some money, but I've never known anyone who got rich without examining their own values, priorities and beliefs. Start by writing down a list of things you value, things you believe, what you want, and what you plan to do with this incredible life you have. Start with your values.

2. Get a life. Before you can handle great wealth, you must make room for it. This is the old, "if you build it, they will come" model. Trying to squeeze success, wealth, fame or fortune into a small life won't work. Create a life first; the lifestyle of your dreams will follow.

3. Eliminate clutter. Trying to create success and achieve wealth while your life's a mess won't work. Success requires clear priorities and a passionate commitment. Simplify your life. Eliminate the excuses. Clean up everything that distracts you from reaching your most important goals.

4. Specify your results. Nobody can hit a target they can't see. Define your outcomes and set clear, achievable results in advance. Know what "success" looks like! Have measurable, specific outcomes and determine that you will achieve them!

5. Burn your ships. There's an ancient story about a Greek general who landed his troops on an enemy shore, then burned his ships. He wanted to make it very clear: Retreat and failure were not an option! Leave no room for failure.

6. Put in more than you take out. No one will pay you more than your services are worth! Get clear about that! You just can't fool people very long. Your services and your results must be far more valuable than the small fee you charge. Some people will rip you off; the rest will make you rich!

7. Live below your means. Rich people know this. Wealth is accumulated, re-invested, used wisely and given away. It is never spent! Let the millionaire athletes and folks who win lotteries buy the fancy cars and flashy jewellery. If you want to achieve great wealth, live simply, invest wisely, enjoy it all!

8. Get rich slowly. The key to great wealth is to minimize income, while maximizing your assets. Income is taxed. Income gets spent -- think about all the cars, boats, diamonds and houses people with huge incomes like to buy! Investing in assets that are hard to spend (buildings, stocks and bonds, collectible art, etc) creates wealth that is not taxed, and isn't spent on a casual impulse.

9. Pay lots of taxes. No, I'm not talking about paying more than you owe, but pay every cent the law requires. Rich folks don't haggle over nickels and dimes, they invest to make millions! If you can legally avoid taxes, do so! Use the law to your advantage when you can. But juggling the books to hide income or save a few bucks, wastes your time, wastes your energy, creates fear of getting caught, and makes you cheap. Don't do it!

10. Give it away. You can't take it with you when you die, and money is not attracted to the selfish, the miserly or the mean. If you would attract money to your life, be clear about what you want to do with it. Contribute to charities that will use it for good. Make the world a better, richer place and you'll create wealth that will last for generations to come. Your children will thank you!

The way I save money, is by paying myself first. I have automatic deductions come out of my bank account on the 15th and 30th of every month, which I put directly into a mutual fund for safe keeping. I take a small portion of my pay check, roughly 10% and put it away. This may not seem like much, but over time it adds up.

In addition, with mutual funds you will have the benefit of compound interest on your side. You should EASILY be able to achieve 8% interest on average in a good a mutual fund, often times more. That’s $800 a year on $10000!

Once you start, you will be addicted. Watching your funds grow is incredibly addictive and will inspire you to invest a larger percentage as your income rises. If you have debt, put a portion of this percentage towards the debt and a portion into your mutual fund, so you have something positive to reinforce your automatic deductions.The bottom line is this, if you have the money deducted in advance (and pay yourself first), you won't miss it and you can go ahead and spend what’s left of your pay check week in and week out. You will be investing in your future wealth, and your mind will be at ease that you aren't wasting your life in the rat race and never progressing.

First, analyse all stock picks you want to trade

In the name of hygienic wisdom, you should clean fruits you pick from the farm before eating them. Similarly, in the name of common sense you should evaluate stocks you get from stock picks sites before trading them. The problem is to find a better prospect from the daily stock picks is difficult. It requires time, discipline and knowledge of stock market.Second, use online financial tools as your advisor's second opinion

Like using a second opinion of a medical specialist to assess your doctor's diagnosis, you can use online financial tools to evaluate stock picks you get. You can narrow down the list of stock picks for better prospects by using the free tools on Yahoo! Finance and MSN Money or tips financial newspapers. For example, you can decide to trade or disregard any stock picks that passed or failed your trading strategies or your screening criteria on MSN or Yahoo - such as analysts' consensus or MSN stocks outer.

Third, filter out the stocks picks with your common sense and tips from investing magazines

In the same manner, you can filter out the stock recommendations with your common sense or tips from financial TV-show or investing magazines.  For instance, if a company Alpha was among the picks you want to buy but you learned from financial headlines that Alpha will shortly fill for bankruptcy and that the CEO, Directors, or Accountants, who are the insiders of Alpha, are selling their shares before the bankruptcy deadline. If you know when insiders are dumping their stocks, will you buy the Alpha's shares?  You will hesitate to buy Alpha. Your investing common sense and knowledge of the stock markets will tell you that it is not the right time to buy.

As you can see, it is possible to profit from the advices of the stock picks websites. You need only to be disciplined and well informed. Above all, you have to evaluate systematically their stocks picks before buying.

Mutual funds that focus on large, fast-growing companies that have high revenue growth earnings and do not pay dividends, but are making significant earnings are called 'growth funds'. Growth mutual fund managers will take risks and pay more for stocks in order to construct a portfolio of those companies that have above average earnings consistently and/or price appreciation. These funds can be and often times are more vulnerable to rises and falls than other mutual funds. When a market is on the downside, a manager must be aggressive to make up for the loss or a lot of money will go down the drain.To understand mutual funds, one must look at them as a collection of stocks and bonds. They are similar to an organization that brings people together to invest in stocks and bonds and other securities. In turn, the investor owns shares representing a part of the holdings of the entire fund. They earn money in three ways: Dividends on stocks and bonds bring in interest. Fund owners receive distributions, which is income that the fund pays out over the course of a year. If the fund also sells securities that have increased in value and price, it has capital gain, and these gains are passed on to the investor via a distribution. If their price increases and are not sold by the executor of the funds, the fund's increase in price and shares can be sold for a profit. Investors can receive funds by check or can reinvest earnings into additional shares.

On the positive side the advantages of owning mutual funds are a professional, who purchases them for you and manages your portfolio, manages your money. It's a relatively inexpensive way for a smaller investor to manage his or her money through the help of a professional manager. Owning shares also allow investors to spread risks out over a large number of assets; thereby making the loss of any single investment less harmful. Buying mutual funds is less expensive transaction wise than a singular security transaction. You can convert mutual shares into cash whenever you like, and it's very easy to purchase them through a bank, with a minimum, small investment.

A major disadvantage is picking the wrong professional to manage your money. Whether you win or lose money through them, you still have to pay your manager, and that could hurt if you're in the red already. Another negative is having too much diversification because of investing in too many companies, or if the fund gets too large, it might be impossible for your manager to reinvest all the money it brings in. This is called dilution.

In fact, it has been said that one of the most profitable skills you can ever master, is the art of trading.

But every so often, the market does the unpredictable. It makes a strong move in the wrong direction, just when all the signs looked like it should go the other way. This is usually due to some news item that has been released and the market, in its usual efficient manner, reacts accordingly. If the news is sensational enough, the investing public can behave quite irrationally, driven by fear (if it's bad news) or greed (if the news is positive). The momentum of the price move takes on a life of its own and continues until it either blows itself out, or in the case of a downward move, fear is replaced by the perception that a bargain is on offer.While markets are moving in predictable directions based on well established and generally reliable price patterns, all seems well. It's the unexpected moves that come out of left field that a disciplined trader needs to be prepared for.

So let's take a look at the three most common mistakes traders make, which separates those who make a lot of money from those who end up losing it all.

1 - Bad Risk Management

It is critical before you even think about trading, that you have a risk management plan. You have a certain amount of capital to trade with and it is essential that you preserve it intact, otherwise you're out of the game.

One of the most common mistakes is investing too much on any one trade. You might feel very confident that price direction will go as expected, but this could be one of those exceptions already mentioned. You either lose a large percentage of your available capital, or you get stuck in a trade, hoping it will turn around - and in the meantime, miss out on all those other opportunities that could've made you some great profits.

So it is essential to only invest a small portion - no more than 10 percent but preferably 5 percent - on any one trade. This is particularly the case if you're using leveraged instruments such as options, futures or CFDs.

Losing 20 percent of 10 percent of your available capital traded on one trade is the equivalent to only 2 percent of your entire trading bank. Psychologically, this is easier to handle. But the law of averages will mean that you also have other capital available for other trades whose profits will far outweigh the loss on one bad trade.

2 - Staying in Too long

Once your trade has realized a target profit, it is far better to close out a trade and bank the money, than hold on in the hope that it will make a lot more. Too often, the good fortune will reverse without notice and your unclaimed profit will turn into a loss. You need to develop a mindset that, even if the trade were to blast off into stellar profits after you exited, that at least you can be content that you achieved some of it - and that the strong movers are more the exception than the rule.

The above is especially true with the likes of short term option trading. Better to take 30 - 50 percent profit on a good trade than be disheartened when your leverage turns around and works against you because you stayed in for too long.

3 - Not Having a System

When trading the markets you can't afford to make emotional decisions. In the end, you must realize that it's only a numbers game. The first mistake a lot of traders make is approaching the market without any plan in place. You must define the aim of your system. Do you want to trade the extremes of ranges, or do you want to catch trends - or both? What success ratio do you need to be profitable? In connection with this success ratio, what must your percentage profit be in relation to percentage losses on any one trade for your success ratio to work?

What indicators or form of analysis will you use? What time frame do you wish to trade - day trading or longer term? Once you decide this, what chart periods will you focus on - 5 minute, hourly, daily or weekly?

If you don't have a plan of your own, it would be wise to follow someone else's trading system, providing it is tried and tested over years and is known to achieve consistently profitable results.