Sometimes people ask me why I left the big money of the mortgage business behind at its height.

And when they do, I always tell them the same thing: that the mortgage business left me long before I ever decided to leave it.

That's because being a "mortgage consultant" at the peak had very little to do with how I was taught the business to begin with. Instead, it turned into a game where the only thing that mattered was the size of your pipeline and how many people you squeezed each month.

How you slept at night was your own problem. And no amount of money in the world was enough for me to live like that.

So it is no wonder to me now that all of it came crashing down around us. Unchecked greed has its price after all.

It frankly turned my stomach, and leaving it was the easiest decision I ever made.

Housing was going down, I was sure of it--and so were the banks.

The rest is history. After writing over 200 articles warning my Wealth Daily readers about the coming crisis in housing, it finally happened, crushing one portfolio after another.

So when my publisher Brian Hicks came to me with the opportunity to head up new newsletter called The Wealth Advisory, I jumped at the chance.

After all, when I wasn't trying to warn my readers about the coming mortgage crisis, I spent my time doing what I truly loved--researching stocks and making investments.

But as good as Brian's offer was, I did have a few ideas of my own to add to the mix--and I wasn't sure if he would be willing to use them all.

First, the The Wealth Advisory had to be more than just simply stock picks, it had to be educational too.

I wanted to teach my readers how to think for themselves and build their own portfolios without taking big risks. Technical and fundamentals, we will cover it all.

Second, the letter also had to be broad-based. Niche investing just isn't my style. So I wanted to be able to put my readers into the stocks that were working without feeling as though I was tied to any one corner of the broader markets.

Third--and this is important--I wanted to create an advisory panel that will give the best picks from all of the editors at Angel Research.

That to me was the key, since the letter would be so broad-based. It would give me the opportunity to pick some of the best brains in the business before making a recommendation.

And, to my surprise, Brian went along with every bit of it.

The Wealth Advisory Investment Philosophy

As for The Wealth Advisory's investment philosophy, it is as simple as the man who taught it to me over 25 years ago. And it has served me well ever since. We will look to buy stocks that have been heavily discounted and sell them at a time when others will pay any price.

This was the philosophy taught to me by my uncle Charlie, a man who hadn't held a job, in the traditional sense, since the Great Depression. My uncle was very much out of the Benjamin Graham school when it came to investing.

Of course, if you were behind him in line at the grocery store that's the last thing you would've thought about him. But it was true--he was a self-made man and he owed it all to his winning investment philosophy.

"It's all about taking and managing risks," he used to say, "it's just that simple."

"Figure that out, and you'll never have to work again," he'd declare with a chuckle and a wink.

To be honest, it is not much more complicated than that--as long as you know how to keep your risks to a minimum.

You see, if there is one thing that I have consistently discovered in talking to retail investors it's this: they simply take on too much risk. And that in the end is what ruins their portfolios.

That to me is the big lesson in it all. The markets really are more than happy to reward you, you just have to have enough patience to protect your principal and be willing to learn along the way.

That much I'm sure of.

That's why I hope you'll join me for a weekly look at the markets that matter.

Your making-an-honest-buck-while-avoiding-big-risks analyst,

Steve Christ, Editor
The Wealth Advisory