By ELIZABETH O'BRIEN

Play It Safe : Buy Some Stock

Long before it became a campaign issue, private equity was known for being a risky but potentially profitable venture. There's a surprisingly safe way for members of the 99 percent club to invest in it. Many private-equity firms use money raised from investors and borrowed from banks to buy struggling, mature companies. In some cases, private-equity firms fire workers or occasionally shutter a business entirely, but they also make many companies more profitable. The easiest and cheapest way to get in is to buy shares in a handful of publicly traded firms, such as Blackstone (BX) or Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) . Shareholders own part of the parent company, not the private-equity funds themselves, so they probably won't see the giant windfalls that the funds sometimes produce. But their performance does influence the firm's share price, says Campbell Anthony, research analyst at investment firm Macquarie.

Go for Broke: Buy Into a Fund

Got at least a million bucks handy? Then a private-equity fund might be for you. Your money will be put into a portfolio alongside cash from hedge funds, pension funds and a lot of wealthy individuals. That principal is used to buy up businesses, and you make money when -- or if -- the fund's underlying businesses are sold for a profit. But that doesn't happen on any predictable timetable. This isn't like a stock investment, either: Once you turn your cash over, you can't sell; you get only whatever profits the fund makes. So why take all that risk? From 1993 to 2005, private-equity funds beat the stock market by three to four percentage points a year, on average, according to Steve Kaplan, a professor at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business. One other consolation: You won't have to pay exorbitant fees if the fund is a dud. Private-equity managers often won't take their full fees unless they make at least an 8 percent annual return.