Many of you who have been loyal Morningstar readers for some time are at least somewhat comfortable choosing funds. However, many investors need help creating appropriate portfolios that incorporate those fund choices.

To that end, I've created five model portfolios specifically designed for retirees. In this week's column, we're going to take a closer look at two of them, the Preservation and the Conservative Portfolios. (Next week, I'll discuss the Balanced, Growth, and Aggressive Growth Portfolios.) Unlike in portfolios appropriate for those still employed, preservation of principal plays a key role in the investment strategy. So, you'll see a heavier allocation to cash and bond investments in these portfolios than you might in portfolios for those who are still working.

Each person's retirement situation is unique. One size really doesn't fit all when it comes to retirement investing. You need to consider all sources of income--Social Security, pensions, dividend income, annuity payouts, etc. You also need to think carefully about how much risk you can tolerate. Use the following model portfolios to jump-start your investing strategy for retirement, but make sure you tailor these portfolios to fit your own individual circumstances.

I am going to talk only about mutual funds that are still open to retail investors today. But if you own a

Casting your net in the fishiest waters gives an edge in fishing. The same is true in investing. The ability to slice and dice data using hundreds of specialized statistics can cause us to lose sight of the fact that the underlying goal for most investors remains very straightforward: compound capital at the highest possible rate over time. Beating the overall market over time is a common goal for many funds and investors. We looked at the performance of broad investment styles over time to see if a particular style had done a better job at helping investors meet this goal. A clear pattern emerged.

Top Fishing Hole
Here's what we did. We compared the performance of all domestic-equity share classes with the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 Index for the trailing 15-year period through Sept. 30, 2007. We chose this index because, unlike the large-cap-leaning S&P 500 Index, it covers the full market-cap spectrum. This stretch of time also represents more than a full market cycle, encompassing the last bear market from 2000 through 2002 and the fantastic bull-run from 1995 through 1999. And it contains enough funds to make meaningful comparisons. We then placed funds into value, blend, and growth groups based on their investment style. Where possible, specialty categories were placed according to style. For example, specialty technology and communications funds landed in the growth camp, while utilities and financials ended up in the value group. Some specialty categories were tough to pigeonhole, so they were not assigned a subgroup.

As the table below shows, one style stood out from the pack. Ibbotson Associates has shown that value

NEW YORK (AP) -- Oil futures jumped to a new record close of $90.46 a barrel Thursday on news that OPEC production increases aren't coming as fast as expected and that the cartel won't announce new output quotas when it meets next month.

Prices rose in early trading on growing concerns about conflict in the Middle East and declining supplies of crude in the U.S. They got a further boost after Dow Jones Newswires reported that Oil Movements, a company that tracks oil tanker traffic, said crude shipments from Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries members will grow more slowly than anticipated through early November.

Meanwhile, OPEC Secretary General Abdalla el-Badri told The Wall Street Journal Asia the cartel is not in discussions to boost production by 500,000 barrels. El-Badri's comments counter rumors that Saudi Arabia is pushing for a production increase. In September, OPEC bowed to Saudi pressure and announced a production increase of 500,000 barrels a day, effective Nov. 1.

"It shows a little drama in the cartel," said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago.

Light, sweet crude for December delivery rose $3.36 to settle at $90.46 a barrel on the New York

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- In addition to scaling back its investment banking operations, Bank of America Corp. is exiting the wholesale mortgage business and eliminating about 700 jobs, bank officials said Thursday.

The nation's second-largest bank will stop offering home mortgages through brokers at the end of the year to focus on direct-to-consumer lending through its banking centers and loan officers. The move also eliminates the jobs in the bank's consumer real estate unit.

The bank shared details of the decision with The Associated Press before its public announcement scheduled for Friday.

The cuts are part of a 3,000-job reduction engineered by Chief Executive Ken Lewis after the nation's second-largest bank reported a huge decline in third-quarter earnings.

"When Ken talks about a top-to-bottom review in five days time, you can't make that happen. These cuts

SEATTLE (AP) -- Microsoft Corp. said Thursday its fiscal first-quarter profit rose 23 percent as brisk sales of the new "Halo 3" video game, Windows and Office helped the software maker breeze past Wall Street's expectations.

Investors cheered, sending shares up from $31.99 to $35.16, about 10 percent, in after-hours electronic trading.

For the quarter ended Sept. 30, the software maker's profit climbed to $4.29 billion, or 45 cents per share, from $3.48 billion, or 35 cents per share, during the same period last year.

The results handily beat Wall Street's predictions. Analysts, on average, had forecast a profit of 39 cents per share, according to a Thomson Financial poll.

Revenue grew 27 percent to $13.76 billion from $10.81 billion in the year-ago quarter, beating analysts' forecast by more than $1 billion.

Microsoft has sold 85 million copies of the Windows Vista operating system since the newest operating