I agree with Daniel Smith's & Mark Harbour's comments entirely.

As Richard Bernstein shows in a chart you can find from following the link below, the investment performance of the so-called “average investor” during the last 20-years compared to the performance of roughly forty asset classes and sub-asset classes, shows that the typical investor's performance over this time period is shockingly poor. In fact, it's lower than all but 3 of the 43 separate asset classes listed, including the 3-month T-Bill class.

http://rbadvisors.com/templates/dmd/images/pdfs/toward_the_sounds_of_ch…

While the various services a qualified Financial Advisor provides beyond simply managing the investment selection, procurement and disposal processes are well addressed by Mr. Smith, helping a investor manage their emotional "time-to-get-in" & "time-to-get-out" thought process itself probably has as much to do with an investor's failure-to-achieve appropriate investment returns as all the other issues combined.

So sure....if you've got a headache or a sore throat you can always go to Webmd.com and see what you might want to do to relieve the pain, but I'd hope if you're having severe chest pains you know better and will seek a competent physician who has spent years in education and training to gain the experience to help you successfully work through your health issues.

The same logic goes for your financial health and wellbeing. If your financial situation is small and fairly benign, go ahead and ask Chuck what you should do, but if it's more complex, I hope you're not foolish enough to buy into the fee-bashing articles like those by Mr. Ellis and try to go it alone. If you do, be sure to plan your retirement needs using the "average investor-type" returns assumptions reflected in Mr. Bernstein's article. If you have enough money to start with....that might just be enough.