How should I build my portfolio?

I advise you to maintain a constant balance in your portfolio between fixed-income securities, blue-chip stocks (and/or assorted mutual funds), and gold and foreign currencies. Your most important task is asset allocation. Portfolio balance and diversification tower above your securities selection as the foundation for your investment success. For most investors, I advise a 50-40-10 plan. You want 50% in fixed income, 40% in general equities, and 10% in gold and foreign currencies.

For the equities portion of your portfolio, I advise exactly 32 stocks (if you choose to invest in individual stocks), with no more than two from each industry. You will achieve approximately 90% of the diversification of owning all NYSE-listed stocks. Mutual funds are a great alternative as well. Invest equally in the stocks (or funds) you own, and once your portfolio is established, don’t buy a new stock unless you first sell a current position.

Once your portfolios are in place, do not mix and match fixed income holdings and equities. You want to maintain balance at all times. Why? Because I, like you, do not have tomorrow’s newspaper. We do not know the future.

To construct a brand-new 32-stock Income Multipliers portfolio, proceed exactly as follows: (1) Buy the Top 10 from this month’s Intelligence Report. (2) Starting from last month’s issue, top down, add additional names not listed in this month’s IR. Then continue with the next most recent issue until your list totals a couple of dozen names. (3) Use the next couple upcoming issues to round out your list to 32 names.