The Globe and Mail

Gail Bebee is the author of No Hype – The Straight Goods on Investing Your Money. She can be reached at gbebee@gailbebee.com; her website is www.gailbebee.com. She wrote a 12-part series for people that are new to investing on their own.

New to direct investing? The series

• Part 1:

  Park your cash here while you learn the ropes - What you need to know before you get started

• Part 2:

  The all-in-one investment solution that could be for you - For rookie investors, one product may be all that's needed to meet investing needs

• Part 3:

  A guide to buying your own mutual funds - Choosing mutual funds isn't so hard with a little research

• Part 4:

  ETFs: easy, tax-efficient funds - A cheap, simple way to diversify your portfolio

• Part 5:

  Take stock-buying into your own hands - Don't be overwhelmed -- with a bit of research, you can manage your own equity portfolio

• Part 6:

  Building a solid base with fixed income - Tthe financial Rock of Gibraltar of investment portfolios – an unadorned, indestructible mass that provides stability through the good times and the bad times

• Part 7

  :Tips for building a portfolio - How to figure out your investing goals. Plus: sample portfolios

• Part 8:

  Lessons from the Investing School of Hard Knocks

• Part 9

  : Ways to invest in mortgages

• Part 10

  : Annuities: An option for any retiree

• Part 11

  : Is it inflation or deflation that investors need to worry about?

• Part 12

  : Boost your investment returns, courtesy of the government

Also with Gail Bebee:

• Let's Talk Investing video: Investing: Riskier than you think
• Let's Talk Investing video: Dangerous investments: Don't go there
• Let's Talk Investing video: How much investing risk can you stomach?