(MONEY Magazine) – In a nation that has always adored action heroes--from the early pioneers to World War II icons to pumped-up movie stars--being an active money manager is virtually a cultural mandate. So it's little wonder that many investors in recent years have racked up profits with an aggressive, risk-defying style. Like Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible, they coolly scaled the highest-P/E stock and landed safely with profits in hand.

I am not one of these investors. Blame it on indecision, blame it on procrastination, but I'm the opposite of an active investor. You might call me an inert investor. And yet I've been successful.

Let me explain. When I first started investing (this was during the first Bush Administration), I knew little about money management. It took me months of research to decide I felt most comfortable with value investing. And it took several more months to sign up with some value funds.

As I learned more, I realized that a diversified portfolio needs growth as well as value funds. And growth opportunities abounded. Old college friends were joining tech firms to work on something called the Internet. I interviewed money managers who were hailing the potential of companies like Microsoft and Cisco. The tech boom was about to begin. A can't-miss opportunity, right?

Well, I missed it. Once again, when it came to deciding which growth funds or stocks to buy, I found myself all too easily sidetracked by other issues--getting my child into kindergarten, finding a reliable plumber, deciding whether to rent the original Love Affair or one of the remakes. As a result, I slouched toward the millennium with the bulk of my portfolio in value funds, which avoided tech almost entirely.

But here's the thing: Procrastination turned out to be the best investing move I've ever made. Last spring, just as I finally started filling out the forms for a growth fund, the Nasdaq plummeted--and kept falling. Suddenly my stodgy funds are looking pretty sharp. Last year my portfolio returned nearly 15 percentage points more than the S&P. Okay, that's only about what a money market would have earned. And no, it doesn't quite make up for missing the bull market. But it beats the performance of famed action-hero managers like Tom Marsico, David Alger and Helen Young Hayes.

All of which gives me a good idea: I should write a book called The Inert Investor's Guide to Wealth. Now, if only I could get started....

--PENELOPE WANG