Here's a guide to the 10 articles on our site that readers like best.

In the second half of July, the U.S. stock market dropped 5.9 percent, the international market by 5.6 percent (measured by the Standard & Poor's 500 Index and the Morgan Stanley Europe Australia Far East Index known as EAFE). The drop wasn’t enough to qualify as either a crash or a correction. But it was swift enough to prompt many startled investors to call us asking if their money was still safe.

What just happened is called a drawdown, an inevitable part of the market’s normal cycle. After a big drawdown early last year, Paul Merriman wrote what has become one of the most important articles in our educational library. It’s full of things that every savvy investor should know.

Click here to read this article. 

Real estate investment trusts (REITs) have produced high returns over the last seven years, leading to some false expectations and misunderstandings.

If you’re not really sure what a REIT is, welcome to the club. Fortunately, they aren’t mysteriously complex.

Paul B. Farrell, columnist for DowJones MarketWatch.com, spotlights the track records of seven buy-and-hold portfolios, including one from FundAdvice.com . He believes passive investing is the “best and safest way to capture the bull on the way up and the bear on the way down.”

Click here to read the article by Paul Farrell.

Most investors make sure their portfolios include some bonds in order to manage their risks. The conventional wisdom – with which I generally agree – is that the fixed-income part of your portfolio becomes more important as you get closer to retirement.

Some people like to own individual bonds. This lets them know exactly what they have, what interest payments they’ll receive and what they’ll get when the bonds mature – and exactly when that will be.

But other investors prefer bond funds. Here are 10 reasons why I’m one of them.

Making money often appears to be a daunting task. Too many options cause us to either throw up our hands in frustration or seek the help of those we believe know more.

But, in reality, the essence of making money is easy to understand.

Are target retirement funds the one-size-fits-all investment choice they appear to be? Maybe, maybe not. Here are 10 things Paul Merriman thinks you should know before you invest.