Don't Lose Your Shirt in These Investments

There are investors and then there are speculators - and the key to your success is being part of the first group. We want you to stay away from investments where it's just too easy to lose your shirt.

Specifically, we recommend you not invest in:

• Anything that you have to feed! If you love racehorses, go to the track, but don't buy a horse of your own unless you can afford to lose every dime. A Triple Crown comes along only once in a while—but vet bills and oats are a guaranteed expense. We had a caller who wanted to know our opinion of putting some money into an emu ranch. Emu steaks are said to be nutritious and emu oil is said to make your skin youthfully soft, but too much can go wrong.


• Commodity funds/futures. Ninety-five percent of "investors" lose money in futures. Leave this to the pros.


• Initial public offering (IPO) of stock from a "cold caller." All we have to do is remind you of the dot.com "stars." Enough said.


• Rare coins. Good luck finding an "expert" you can trust.


• CMOs—collateralized mortgage obligations. Collateralized "moron" obligations would be more apt. These are a complex form of mortgage-backed bonds, or bonds backed by a pool of mortgage loans. Evaluating the risk of CMOs requires very specialized skills.


• "900" -number offers. You want to pay for a call to a con artist ... maybe sitting in a foreign country!


• Most time-shares. Before you consider buying one, think of the 600,000 people desperate to sell theirs.


• Any kind of limited partnership. Remember the late 1980s? If you do, you know what we mean. If you don't, take our word for it: Avoid limited partnerships.

We're always on the lookout for potential scams because we want your money to be as safe as possible! Protect your finances with these guides:

• 3 Ways to Protect Your Money From Harm
• A Great New Way to Fight ID Theft
• A Dolan Expose: Brokers' Favorite Tricks