The Motley Fool's Weekly Editors' Picks

Fools were out and about this week in an investing world jampacked with actions and ideas. Here are three articles you might find useful as you decide how to invest your money.

Does Buy What You Know Actually Work?
Novice investors are often advised to look in their medicine cabinets and kitchen cupboards to find investing ideas, in line with the maxim "buy what you know."

"I would argue that buying what you know is simply too shallow to base an investment on," wrote Fool contributor Sean Williams. "You might feel that you have a good understanding of a company, but likely the purchase is influenced more by your 'liking the brand' than by an actual understanding of the company's financials."

Sean highlighted returns of five portfolio stalwarts -- including Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) and General Electric (NYSE: GE) -- to help investors evaluate whether it's "time to wipe off the cobwebs and trade out these portfolio dinosaurs for companies with greater long-term growth potential."

Read the article if you're ready to go beyond buying "what you know."

Why India Is Sexier Than China
Nick Kapur lays out some differences between China's and India's economies and concludes that India has the edge, partly because businesses there operate in the dynamic rough-and-tumble of competition, whereas China's government has a heavy hand in who succeeds in its country.

"I prefer India to a large extent because the value-bent investor in me sees India as a raw, somewhat mismanaged asset whose inner value is just waiting to be unleashed," Nick wrote. "When I consider China … I see a growth stock that seems to need all the dominos to fall just so in order to continue on its path."

Check out the article to read more and to find out how to keep up to date with Nick as he moves to Mumbai to evaluate India's long-term economic opportunities on an extended, firsthand basis.

General Motors: Wait Till Next Year
General Motors' (NYSE: GM) long-term prospects hinge on the new vehicles it develops, according to Fool contributor John Rosevear. "The question of whether GM can raise its product game to match or beat Ford (NYSE: F), Toyota (NYSE: TM), Honda (NYSE: HMC), and the rest of the world's best is the big question," he wrote.

Chevy's Malibu, for instance, has been pushed from consumers' minds by the new Ford Fusion. And where's GM's plug-in hybrid? Investors who want to see GM pull ahead in the car wars may have to wait a year, or two, or three, to see whether its product development brings success, John wrote.

See the article for more of John's insight into auto stocks.

See a stock in this story you'd like to follow? Add it to My Watchlist, which will find all of our Foolish analysis on it.