Diversify, Diversify, Diversify

I can't believe the number of people that have lost everything by investing with Madoff. While I feel empathy for those who lost money, who puts all their money in one place and doesn't know what the investment is backed by. The first rule any amateur or professional investor learns is to diversify. Never put your money in one stock, bond, company, industry, sector, etc. This includes your house. If people are so lazy they can't even handle the simple oversight of their wealth and investments, than maybe they don't deserve it. We should all learn several investment lessons from the Madoff debacle...diversify, don't invest in anything you don't understand, and if it always goes up and sounds too good to be true, it is.