Seven steps to making money in today's stock market without risking what you already have.

Despite recent stock market turmoil, history shows that stocks should still be central to every investor's long-term wealth building plan. So the question isn't whether you should be in the market, but what you must do to both protect yourself and improve your overall performance.

The Standard & Poor's Guide to Long-Term Investing by Joseph R. Tigue, former managing editor at Standard & Poor's, outlines a low-maintenance, seven-step program designed to help you build and protect wealth over the long term.

From determining the best ways to get started and knowing who you can trust and what you should avoid at all costs, it explains:

• Simple strategies for knowing what you are buying--and only buying what you know;
• Straightforward methods for knowing if a stock is overvalued or selling at a discount; and
• All about asset allocation, dollar cost averaging, and other easy-to-follow approaches.