My name is Tim, and welcome to the Financial LIFE Planning weekly!

The financial industry would prefer you to believe that you can't be a successful investor without it. That's good for business but it's not exactly true.

In fact, it may be truer to suggest that a layperson with a reasonable grasp of middle school math--combined with the rarer traits of discipline, grit and humility--is capable of building a portfolio that could beat the majority of professional stock pickers over the long-term.

It's not easy--but it can be made simple.