Editor's note: Nowadays, anyone can use exchange-traded funds to build a long-term portfolio that meets their needs. And with the proper mix, you'll beat the typical investor.

But what if it were even easier than that?

For years, we've received questions from subscribers like this one: "I get so many different recommendations from you guys. How am I supposed to decide which ones to buy, and how much to invest in each idea?"

In early 2017, we solved that problem when we unveiled our comprehensive Stansberry Portfolio Solutions product.

And in today's Masters Series essay – adapted from the December 16, 2016 Digest, written by our founder Porter Stansberry – you'll see why this is the simplest way to reach your goals... take control of your wealth... and eliminate the "guesswork" from investing...

How to Finally Put Your Financial House in Order

By Porter Stansberry, founder, Stansberry Research

For some reason, it seems that most people don't take good investment decisions (asset allocation, position sizing, and risk management) seriously...

Likewise, it seems like some law of human nature dictates that most people will only buy investments that are extremely risky and volatile. Subscribers tend to completely ignore our best advice, which is to build a portfolio around a firm foundation of super-high-quality, low-volatility stocks.

I'd estimate about 90% of your actual investment results are dictated by your allocation decisions – how much capital you put into each position – not which particular stocks you buy.

I want that to stop forever.

I'd like this to be the year that most of our subscribers finally begin to take our work (and their portfolios) seriously. I'd like this to be the year you finally realize your ultimate investment goals, which are to be firmly in control of your wealth and completely on the right track.

And I'm going to do everything I can to help you get there... including what you'll find below...

Today, I'm going to give you the most valuable gift you might ever receive...

I'm going to tell you exactly how to finally "get there" with your investing. Let this be the year that you don't end up bitterly disappointed with your investment results.

There's no reason you can't achieve great results. You have the information you need. Now you just have to take about an hour each month – no more – to put it to work.

And I'll explain exactly how to do it.

It would be wonderful if I had a crystal ball and could predict exactly how the future will unfold...

But that's never going to happen.

You have to design your portfolio to succeed no matter the macro environment.

How have you done in your portfolio?

If you've been following our advice, you should have done pretty well. But if you haven't taken the time to get organized... if you don't take a whole-portfolio approach... if you inevitably put too much capital in the wrong stocks, and not enough in the right ones... what are you going to do about it?

You have two choices...

You can satisfy one well-known definition of insanity and keep repeating the same experiment while expecting different (better) results.

Or – option No. 2 – you can finally begin to invest like a pro. You can finally begin to capitalize on the research you've already bought. You can allocate appropriately. You can follow your stop-loss discipline. You can finally "get there."

And you can do it all in about one hour per month. How?

A few years ago, we rolled out a new product...

It's designed to make following our advice completely foolproof – so easy that the average sixth-grader could do it. Even better, it makes using our best ideas to build your wealth more convenient than ever before.

You see, back in early 2017, we changed the focus of our business forever. Rather than publishing just individual newsletters with a list of recommendations, we created complete portfolio solutions.

That's why we call this product Stansberry Portfolio Solutions.

These are completely built-out portfolios. All of the positions are selected by our investment committee (that's me, Steve Sjuggerud, Doc Eifrig, and our portfolio manager Austin Root). To serve all of our subscribers, we offer four different portfolio options. You can subscribe to one or all of them. Let me tell you just a bit about how each portfolio works...

The first portfolio is called Capital.

You'll find around 20 different positions in this portfolio. All of our best ideas are in here, selected from our leading publications: Stansberry's Investment Advisory, True Wealth, Extreme Value, Retirement Millionaire, Commodity Supercycles, Stansberry Gold & Silver Investor, DailyWealth Trader, and Stansberry Innovations Report. All of these ideas are allocated for you, down to the exact number of shares to buy per $100,000 invested.

To follow our advice, you just have to hand the list to your broker or type in the stocks on your online brokerage account. Done. (In 2019, The Capital Portfolio returned 42%, beating the broader S&P 500 Index by a little more than 11 percentage points.)

The second portfolio is called Income.

You'll find around 20 to 30 positions in this portfolio. They overlap some with The Capital Portfolio, but here, the positions are geared to produce current income. That means we add our fixed-income research (Stansberry's Credit Opportunities and Income Intelligence) into the mix.

Once again, you'll get our complete advice about allocation – down to the number of shares to buy. You're free to modify our portfolio in any way you want, but if you just want to follow our advice, you'll be able to do so, immediately, without lifting a finger or reading a single newsletter. (In 2019, The Income Portfolio returned more than 27%, including nearly 5% in safe, sturdy income.)

(Obviously, anyone who subscribes to these portfolios will get complete access to the underlying newsletters, too. And we certainly hope that you'll read them and stay fully informed. But the point is, you don't have to if you don't want to.)

In May 2019, we added another portfolio called Defensive.

Like the others... this model portfolio is comprised of 20 to 25 of our best ideas, selected from our leading publications, with specific allocations to buy.

The Defensive Portfolio focuses on six strategies you'll need to best weather the next bear market. Some of these strategies are designed to help you prepare – and even profit – before a big correction hits... And others should help protect your assets as a decline unfolds... And finally, we provide one strategy that we won't fully utilize until we're well into the depths of the market despair and you can go "bargain hunting" for world-class businesses at fire-sale prices.

Finally, we call the last portfolio Total.

As you'd expect, it contains investment ideas drawn from all of the research we produce, including our most exclusive publications, like Stansberry's Big Trade, Retirement Trader, True Wealth Opportunities: China, True Wealth Opportunities: Commodities, Cannabis Capitalist, and True Wealth Systems. This portfolio is a bit larger as a result, with up to 40 different positions. This is the option for folks who want everything and want to be the most diversified. (In 2019, The Total Portfolio was up more than 32%, ahead of the S&P 500 despite being much less volatile and more safely invested.)

This new, higher level of service finally allows every subscriber to keep up with our best ideas and never again suffer from "portfolio disappointment."

To make this option even more appealing, we include two things that I think will make a lot of you very, very happy.

First, we built a team of analysts to create the Stansberry NewsWire service. This team analyzes every single bit of information that's released by or about these companies. They pass along any important developments to you in real time. You might not want to read every single piece of news about your investments... But if you do, you won't have to go looking for it. It comes directly to you.

Second, we package everything up and send it to you once a month. In one e-mail, you'll find the current portfolio, any changes we're making to it, a brief review of all of the news surrounding our portfolio companies, and a few brief notes from our investment committee.

With Stansberry Portfolio Solutions, you'll be able to manage your wealth in less than one hour per month. You can finally "be there" when it relates to your investment goals.

Regards,

Porter Stansberry

Editor's note: It's the biggest night of the year for you and your money... On Tuesday, January 14, at 8 p.m. Eastern time, Porter, Steve Sjuggerud, and Doc Eifrig will sit down to reveal their market predictions for the upcoming year. They'll detail what's next for the "Melt Up"... show what a "bulletproof" 2020 portfolio looks like... and share their No. 1 favorite stocks for 2020. Best of all, it's FREE to attend. Save your seat right here.