According to John Bogle, former CEO of Vanguard Funds, one of most trusted authorities on investing in mutual funds and a strong advocate for ordinary investors, such investors typically get poor returns on their investments. How poor?

Between 1984 and 2002, average stock fund investor made just 2.7% per year on their fund investments! Hard to believe isn't it? Yet this is for a period during which S&P Stock 500 Index returned 12.2%, a -9.5% shortfall!

Expressed somewhat differently, had equity investor invested $1000 buy and hold in average equity fund beginning in 1984, their investment would have risen in value by $4420 by close of 2002, for a 9.3% return. But had he invested $1000 in S&P 500 Stock Index instead beginning in 1984, his profit would have been $7910.

But, folks, here's biggest part of problem: Since most fund investors tend to buy and sell as a function of mass psychology, which usually turns out to be wrong, average equity fund investor does far worse over years than long-term results had he merely bought and held his funds. So, if we track performance of typical investor's $1000 made at start of 1984, his profit would be a mere $660, or a shocking one-twelfth of that of $7910 shown above for S&P Index.

How does Bogle account for this tremendous shortfall by average investor? He attributes first 3% of annualized loss to management fees, costs of higher than 100% average turnover of stock portfolios, and other expenses incurred by average fund. As a result of such hefty costs, typical fund earns, as shown above, nearly 3% less than Index.

Every day, nearly 1,400 Americans are victims of identity theft. It can take anywhere from two to four years to straighten out nightmare, and average victim will invest approximately 175 hours and over $800 of their own money trying to get their situation resolved. Here are five steps you can take to protect yourself, safeguard your identity, and ensure that your credit remains sound.

1.Guard your Social Security number. If you have number printed on your checks, cross it off manually and reorder new checks without it. If you have your SSN as your driver?s license number, request a new one with a different number.

2.Check your bank and credit card statements every month for unusual activity. You only have sixty days to report identity theft, or you become liable for damages yourself.