If you want to gamble go to vegas, and if you want to speculate buy cryptocurrency, don't do it with your savings, but if you want to invest your money long term you should buy good corporations that have great balance sheets. We all create garbage, consume water and rely on defense, that is where I recommend to have the bulk of your money invested long term.

My strategy for stocks is simple, find companies that we all use everyday and rely on in industries that are growing not shrinking. The most basic companies are the ones that tend to always do well (outside of fraud or a huge natural disaster). By diversifying into these kinds of companies you will ensure your wealth will continue to grow overtime as they earn more revenue each year!

I look to make things simple, invest in what you know. If you love something, look and see if it is a stock. If it is publicly traded you can then look if they are profitable, what kind of debt they have, and what dividends they pay.

What I look for:
1) Little or no debt
2) GAAP not their adjusted crap!
3) Dividend payments over past 5 years must grow on average at least 3 of the 5 past years. IE. The dividend must have been increased at least 3 out of the last 5 years.
4) Margins increasing year over year with higher revenues
5) Revenue per employee. This metric is interesting to me since it shows how much cost per employee per $1 of revenue is generated. This also will factor into the next and final point..
6) Automation. Looking at ways to improve margins and revenue per employee by utilizing automation and machine learning.