Editor’s note: We caught up with Pam Krueger, executive producer, co-host and creator of the award-winning MoneyTrack series on pubic television, to get her advice on simple investing strategies for 2010.

What is a simple investing strategy to strive for in 2010?

Pam:  An investing strategy that actually works is known as dollar-cost averaging. The brilliance of investing this way is that it is absolutely the easiest to do and takes very little money to do it.

How does it work?

Pam: There are three steps, as follows:

Step 1: Open a brokerage account at a low-cost brokerage firm. Some of my favorites include Vanguard, Fidelity and Sharebuilder.

Step 2: Instruct your brokerage company to automatically withdraw the same amount of money on a certain date each month from your bank checking account.  Say you start investing with $50 a month on the 15th of every month. That $50 is deducted from your checking account and invested for you.

Step 3: Invest in a low-cost, broadly-based diversified fund. Which investment works best for this $50? Choose a very low-cost stock market index fund where your $50 will be automatically invested and spread across thousands of different stocks. Your investment will mirror the index you’ve chosen. For instance, a good suggestion is to start by investing in the S&P 500 Index Fund. This index consists of America’s largest and most profitable companies and will even have exposure to international profits because so many of these companies are multi-national.

Where does dollar-cost averaging come in?

Pam:  Notice that some months when the stock market is very high, your $50 is buying fewer shares of the fund. But when share prices are low, you automatically pick up more shares. Now, you can see how dollar-cost averaging not only helps keep your investments safer by diversifying your holdings, but also forces you to stay on track to buy low and sell high!

What are some investing mistakes to avoid in 2010?

Pam:  Avoid the temptation to hand your investment decisions over to someone else to manage for you. This can be the biggest mistake you could ever make. We have a tendency to belileve we are not capable of taking control of decisions about investing because everything we hear and read suggests hiring a money manager or advisor who has the knowledge, which suggests we don’t have enough know-how.

The truth is you can tap into the expertise of a financial advisor or planner and you can hire that advisor to teach you what you need to know in order to invest your money according to your goals, your personality, even your beliefs. If you do decide to hire an advisor, make sure to check that advisor’s background by going online to NASAA.org.

To read more from Pam and view her latest television appearances, visit her Web site at http://www.pamkrueger.com.