Most investors got slammed last year, down 50% or more in their investments. Didn't matter if they owned stocks or real estate, they got hammered. Many have to start over. And if they're near retirement, it's scary. Years of patient investing wiped out, gains that were made over a long time disappeared frighteningly fast.

But now it's time to begin fresh, to rebuild. What's the safest way to regain some or all of the losses without suffering another wipeout?

This should be the new mantra for all investors: show me the money. In other words, companies can talk all they want about cutting costs or new products or turning the corner or slicing dividends. What investors need to see is profits. Until those start showing up, investors will mostly stay on the sidelines.

There's plenty of talk, very little proof, that stocks might be able to do better. We've seen a decent rally lately. There's piles of cash at venture firms or equity funds, just sitting, waiting to pounce on bargains. But until that money is put to work, it's all talk, no action. Until institutions start moving their money into this market by buying stocks or outright purchases of companies, many individual investors will be interested observers, not participants. They want to see money move from the bench into the game. Then they'll follow suit.

Ted Allrich is the founder of The Online Investor and author of the just released book: Comfort Zone Investing: Build Wealth And Sleep Well At Night. In this weekly column, he'll offer advice to investors who are just getting started.

Earnings are what investing in stocks is all about. When you buy a stock you are purchasing the right to future earnings of the company. The more earnings produced, the higher the stock price will go. But be careful. Some earnings are much more valuable than others.

Here are some ways companies add to earnings. They're not all equal:

First and foremost, the best earnings are the ones that come from continuing operations, from the core business of a business. In other words, if a company makes widgets, investors look for more widget sales each quarter, both in volume and in revenues. Ideally, price increases are part of the growth, but with international competition extremely fierce in the widget market, that's hard to make stick.