Welcome to the 49th installment of The Wal-Mart Weekly, a column dedicated to bringing you insight, wit, facts, results, opinions and just a bit of everything else when it comes down to a very hot topic these days: Wal-Mart.

In the last edition of The Wal-Mart Weekly, I peered into the customer returns process at the world's largest retailer. This week, Wal-Mart will go on hiatus for a week while I perform the same experiment on its closest competitor, Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT). As such, Target is my special guest on this week's Wal-Mart Weekly.

Although it seemed to me that there was a process breakdown and too much of a liberal take on returning several items to Wal-Mart in last week's column, it was a little different at Target. At least the packages were looked into this week, but there was more to it as well.

It's been a tough slog for professionals and individual investors during 2007 and the start of 2008. Those who did well either

• took a big swing on commodities,
• owned and sold tech into the 4th quarter,
• prayed hard and were answered, or
• were so-called Tiger Cubs.

Bloomberg reports on the 2007 returns of the Tiger Cubs, named because they all trained/worked under famed hedge fund guru, Julian Robertson of Tiger Asset Management.

When fellow BloggingStocks blogger Aaron "Buy Everything" Katsman and I recently looked into Robertson's portfolio over the years, it appears that he takes a very concentrated approach to investing. He picks a limited number of names he believes in and holds steady. The bulk of his holdings return average market returns, a couple are down big, but a couple see incredible outsized gains. Its these few holdings that Robertson lets run that contribute significantly to his success as a manager.

I encountered a fascinating article at Forbes.com. Writer Tara Weiss brings to light the fact that when accepting a new job, recruits should realize that they have a right and even a responsibility to take some initiative in negotiating their pay package. Think of it this way: After all the long hours of processing applications, reviewing resumes, and conducting interviews, if you are the individual who receives the offer for employment, that indicates you have a lot going for you. Don't be undersold. It's not an issue of pride. It's responsible economics plain and simple.

With the hope that you'll read Ms. Weiss's article, I'll take the proposition one step further. I submit to you that once you have become established in a job, don't let a job classification or title restrict you from asking for more. If you're not bound by the terms of a labor agreement through a union or other labor contract, then the sky's the limit, and I'm saying that you should go for it. Every employment situation offers opportunities for advancement and for income increase also. If you don't believe me, let me prove it to you.

The company I work for is historically tight-fisted when it comes to employee compensation. It's not that we don't generate enough profit to justify pay raises, but as a subsidiary of a larger entity that provides the lion's share of our workload, accounting is "manipulated" to push the profit up to the parent company. This is simple to prove when given the fact that, in a responsible business sense, any company that shows the minimal profit we do would be immediately shut down and those capital assets would be put to work elsewhere. This makes it tough for a guy like me to get ahead. I, however, applied a strategy that has performed for me all of my working years, and which is encompassed in the following ideal:

I don't work for my employer, I work for me. It's all about my own bottom line.

The TradeKing blog posted a nice review by Dominic Basulto of the May 2007 cover story of Kiplinger's Personal Finance. that pointed out some old tried and true investment strategies that are still the best way to build financial wealth over time.

While these strategies are nothing new, they should be reaffirmed from time to time.

Kiplinger's suggests that you consider the following when looking to consistently build your investment value over time:

1.) Get involved in a sector which has been underperforming for a considerable period of time and is showing strong signs of picking up. Consider Warren Buffett's railroads play. Could he be on to something?

2.) Keep a look out for "breakout technologies". I suggest keeping a close watch on solar and artificial intelligence plays as well as RFID. Basulto suggests telecom and biotech.

3.) Higher risk generally provides higher returns. Do ya think? Play the volatility game. This requires nerves of steel and a lightening hand but if you're good, the returns can be immense. It's like betting on the horse that's straining at the gate and sweating before the run. Either that pony will run uncontested or it'll spin circles in the first length. Volatility plays best if you're a heavy duty behind the scenes researcher.

4.) Look for fundamentally strong companies which have floundered under poor management and then wait for a management change. I have watched several people successfully work this angle.

The Kiplinger article seeks to provide insight into the strategies for compounding your money over various time frames. The information provided is valuable and time tested but Kiplinger's makes clear that they suggest a longer time table shall provide you with greater investment security.