So if I can do this, I think you can too.  That’s true for two reasons.

First off, nobody cares more about your money than you do.  So you are motivated and you have your best interest at heart.

And second, many of the professionals simply aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.  For example, most mutual fund managers can’t beat the index of the S&P 500.  And some studies have shown that you can throw darts at stock picks and do just as well as many professional investors.

And here’s another little insider tidbit for you to consider … the minimum passing score on the New York Stock Exchange Stockbroker Series 7 exam is 70.  Can you guess what the average stockbroker score is?  It’s 74, which says these “professionals” just barely passed (and yes—I scored much higher than that).  But it just goes to illustrate the old point that amateurs built the Ark, and professionals built the Titanic.

So you can do this.  But it’s important you know what you are doing.  Because these are perilous times for investors.  Things aren’t like they used to be.

For example, in the past, markets often seemed to climb steadily for long stretches of time.  Like when I was that corporate employee.  Investing during those times seemed effortless, brainless really.

The company stock seemed to go up by 15% every year.  Me and my fellow employees banked on that fact—we took it for granted — it seemed to happen like clockwork and we assumed we would double our stock value every 5 years based on that fact alone.

I ran into an old chart I had done back then projecting all those numbers.  It seems a bit naïve today — to say the least.

And other investors did much the same—they mindlessly bought any old blue chip stocks with a buy and hold attitude.  Often this worked.

But not today.