Mallouk defines the five most common investment missteps—market timing, active trading, misunderstanding performance and financial information, letting yourself get in the way, and working with the wrong investment advisor—and includes detailed information on how to dodge the most common investing pitfalls.

Common investing mistakes include not doing enough research, reacting emotionally, not diversifying your portfolio, not having investment goals, not understanding your risk tolerance, only looking at short-term returns, and not paying attention to fees.

Warren Buffett is often considered the world's best investor of modern times. Buffett started investing at a young age, and was influenced by Benjamin Graham's value investing philosophy.