As Warren Buffett has pointed out, for the achievement of wealth or financial independence one needs just one good idea. Why not: invest with the best?

The odds against the part-time, individual investor (certainly including myself) beating the long-term records of the likes of Wallace Weitz, John Neff, Michael Price, John Train, Martin Zweig, or Peter Lynch are enormous. An amateur should probably only try if selecting stocks is a hobby of intense personal interest.

Particularly in the financial realm, to realize one's limitations can be a profitable insight. So, even as we may dabble at the interesting endeavor of researching and purchasing company shares ourselves, why not a little wealth insurance, just in case it turns out we are not quite as good as the Warren Buffetts or John Templetons of this world. The "premiums" for this insurance would simply be whatever we care to set aside for buying shares in top quality stock holding companies or mutual funds, managed by the investment community's finest.

Though often undone in bear markets by too much reliance on high margin debt levels, my father had a pretty good record in the stocks he bought. Nonetheless, he was realistic about Berkshire Hathaway (BRK/A; BRK/B), taking a significant position in that company, not because it looked cheap at the time or was otherwise a special situation, but since he could admit that Warren Buffett, BRK's chairman and chief shareholder, was a better investor than he.

"If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!" he declared in announcing the purchase. Unoriginal, but good advice for the average value investor. (An added benefit of investing with the great: even if one were somewhat above the mean as a stock selector, he or she may still glean suggestions from reviewing the quarterly and annual reports of investment mentors. This led us, for instance, to profitable stakes in American Express [AXP] and Washington Mutual [WM].)

Once they are in your portfolio, resist the urge to trade them unless, over a several year period, they have clearly lost their edge. Instead, to truly see the advantage of value investing, try to hold on for the very long-term.

Here are four to consider today, all no-load value mutual funds, and all with excellent ten-year records:

The annual compound total return average on an equal investment in each of the above funds over the past ten years would have been 17.80%. (Compare with 13.16% for the Vanguard 500 Index Fund during the same period.) A $10,000 investment at the outset in each of the four ($40,000 total) would have become $205,832 if all dividends and capital gains were reinvested and the assets were left in an IRA or other tax-deferred account. The funds' returns would also have been achieved with lower than average risk of loss in down markets.

Unfortunately, we are unlikely to see sterling returns such as those cited above again soon. As always, prior performance is no guarantee of future results. In addition, several analysts point out that, even after recent declines in U.S. stock markets, they are still highly overvalued compared with several fundamental measures. So our recommended assets would be doing well to simply exceed the major market averages for the next several years.

In a speech in July, 2001, Warren Buffett, as quoted by "Fortune," in its December 10, 2001 article, "Warren Buffett on the Stock Market," indicated the recent value of U.S. stocks compared with our gross national product is quite high by historical standards, probably higher than just before the 1929 crash that ushered in the Great Depression. While he does not forecast another debacle of that magnitude, his assessment is that, after commissions and fees, average equity returns for the next 10-20 years are not likely to be much over half what they were in the last decade. All the more reason, in our opinion, to choose the very best money managers for one's hard-earned savings and investments.

(Disclosure statement: Larry and Val have holdings in some of the suggested assets but do not "make a market" in any of them and do not derive any direct benefit from recommending them, except perhaps for a bit of smug self-satisfaction.)