I know a handful of extremely wealthy people. To my knowledge, none got that way by turning on the television and watching folks like the sputtering, arms-waving, finger-jabbing Cramer tell them what to do right now. The rich guys, whether in real estate or running a business, hunkered down for 20 to 25 years. They got up early, stayed late, lived modestly, spent frugally, and one day woke up rich.

Investing and speculating are two different things. Speculators bounce in and out -- trying to catch the next wave. Investors tend to be patient. They recognize that things fluctuate up and down, but they remain focused on the long term.

As for the stock market, Fortune magazine writes that during the '80s, stocks averaged an annual return of 17.6 percent. But, if a trader missed 40 days of the decade's 2,528 trading days -- and those happened to be the 40 best days -- that trader's annual return would fall to 4 percent. Moral to the story: Nobody knows. Nobody can predict the ups or the downs. But over the long haul, the trend goes up. Here, the operative phrase is "long haul."

Legendary stock-picker Warren Buffett says the most important words about investment were written by his mentor, economist and inventor Ben Graham: " . . . [T]he stock owner should not be too concerned with erratic fluctuations in stock prices, since in the short term, the stock market behaves like a voting machine, but in the long term it acts like a weighing machine (i.e., its true value will in the long run be reflected in its stock price)."

Years ago I watched a television comedy. A character explained why the cops sent him to prison. "I wanted to be rich," he said. "But it seemed the way to get rich was to get up early and work really, really hard. That didn't appeal to me, so I stole."

Sorry, no short cuts.