Stock Market

• CNNMoney reports that from 1926 to 2010, the S&P 500 -- one of the chief stock indexes used to judge the health of the U.S. economy -- averaged an annual return of 9.8 percent. That average includes catastrophic downturns such as the Great Depression and the Great Recession. As a result, CNNMoney and financial advice service The Motley Fool recommend putting your money into the stock market for high returns over a long period of time.
  
  

Individual Stocks

• CNNMoney points out that stocks are not simply pieces of paper and not all shares are created equal; when you buy stock, you buy a stake of ownership in a company. Some companies churn out reliable profits over decades, some companies go bankrupt after a few years and some companies engage in illegal practices at the expense of investors (think Enron). The Motley Fool very strongly recommends thoroughly researching a company's record and financial statements before buying any stock -- look up the reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and go through them carefully, reading all of the footnotes.
  
  

Hold On

• People lose a lot of money in the stock market. Most of the money is lost when companies go bankrupt, when overvalued new companies turn out mediocre profits causing share prices to plummet, and when investors sell stocks during hard times that have to do with macroeconomic factors and not an individual company's management. The Motley Fool's beginner series repeats that one of the tricks to getting consistently high returns from the stock market is to invest in stocks that you plan to hold for a long time and never buy or sell on a whim.
  
  

Index Funds

• If the stock market seems too risky or complicated but you still want a 9.8 percent annual average return, consider investing in an index fund. Index funds are mutual funds whose portfolios mirror the S&P 500, the Dow Jones Industrial Average or another common benchmark. Index funds perform at the rate of the overall economy and are "passive" funds, which means that the fund manager trades shares rarely, resulting in low fees and taxes.