[Jacko]

Good point...I have heard that the blindfolded monkey with a pin does as well as most stock brokers working really hard to pick the best stocks. Its important to realize, no matter how you voted...You are ultimately on your own out there!

Diversify across mutual funds (which are already diversified (mostly) by their very nature)- Low Cap, High Cap, Bond funds, Internationals, Value, taxable and tax-free...... and dollar cost average. Generally stay away from individual stocks unless, you either know the company really, really well, you like to gamble and/or you have a LOT of money.

For me, keeping it as simple as possible is important....5-7 mutual funds in the categories above.

Thats about as good as its going to get from what I can see.