The stock market is a phenomenal way to build wealth, as it allows an investor to place their money in a vehicle that automatically makes more money. At least, for investors who know what they’re doing. A beginning investor may start out lucky or unlucky, but if they focus on great companies, chances are they’ll do just fine over time with their common stock trading. Looking at the best companies—those that can consistently grow their earnings and cash flow, and who often pay a dividend and provide investors with robust trading volume— a few well (and not-so-well) known names make the list....

What a Well-Balanced Portfolio Should Look Like Investors who are just starting out in the stock market either take one of two paths.  If they’re risk-averse, they may start investing with a mutual fund or ETF, which owns many stocks and makes management decisions on their behalf. The most common of these funds are index funds, which follows a specific stock market index on Wall Street, such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500 Index, or the Nasdaq. For individual investors who want to play the markets more aggressively, however, they may start investing in individual st...