By WSJ Staff

Journal reporter Eleanor Laise writes:

Talk to financial gurus about where they’re investing their own retirement money. and you’ll hear plenty of disagreement. John Bogle, founder of mutual-fund giant Vanguard Group. holds municipal-bond funds. Muriel Siebert, chairwoman of brokerage firm Muriel Siebert & Co. is buying dividend-paying stocks. And veteran commodities investor Jim Rogers is scooping up shares of Chinese companies.

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Jim Rogers, at the Asian Financial Forum in Hong Kong earlier this month, favors Chinese stocks.

Though their money-management styles may differ, the financial stars share some key traits that can form the basis of any sound investing strategy. Here are four important lessons that small investors can learn from the industry veterans:

1. Don’t hide under the bedcovers.

A market meltdown is no time to close your eyes to new investment opportunities. If you’re waiting out the chaos in cash, you may be missing some rare bargains.

“Look for parts of the stock market, but more importantly parts of the broad market outside of stocks, that have been savaged beyond recognition, and look at those areas as possible opportunities,” says Rob Arnott, chairman of investment-management firm Research Affiliates. “Folks who react to this carnage by saying ‘let me take my risk off the table’ are making a terrible mistake.”

2. Take losses in stride.

The pros don’t like losing money any more than we do, but they don’t let losses send their strategy into a tailspin. Ms. Siebert, who took a substantial loss in Wachovia stock, says, “when I look at what I lost in it, I’m not proud, but that’s the way it goes. You can’t win everything every day.”

Jeremy Siegel. professor of finance at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, says he has also taken a beating, just like anyone else who has invested in stocks lately. “But I’ve learned through my studies that it’s the worst time to abandon [stocks] after you’ve taken a beating because returns are often extremely good right after that,” he says. “I’m sticking with my stocks.”

3. Don’t fuss with your portfolio every minute.

The pros can take a surprisingly hands-off approach to their own portfolios.

Here’s how Mr. Bogle arrived at his current investment mix of 75% bonds and 25% stocks: “I’m not much one for doing a lot of investment activity except on extreme occasions,” he says. “I don’t quarterly rebalance. But the market rebalanced for me. I didn’t do anything, and the right things happened.”

David Dreman, chairman and chief investment officer of Dreman Value Management. says he also has a very low-turnover portfolio. If you’re moving in and out of cash trying to time the market, you can miss 25% or 30% of a bull market’s returns before you even realize it’s a bull market, he says.

4. Be thrifty.

The financial world’s luminaries are often penny-pinchers.

Burton Malkiel. a Princeton University economics professor and author of “A Random Walk Down Wall Street,” says the core of his retirement accounts are in low-cost index-tracking funds. “The one thing I’m sure about is the lower the fee I pay to the provider of the investment service, the more there will be for me,” he says.

For many of these gurus, thrift isn’t just an investment decision. It’s a way of life.

Don Phillips, managing director at investment research firm Morningstar. says he’s been maxing out his contributions to his retirement accounts throughout his entire working career.

Mr. Bogle puts it simply: “I hate to spend money,” he says.