[swede123]

Thanks to the abundance of information out there I think the average savvy investor can do pretty good on his own these days, assuming he's not trying the riskier areas of investing (commodity futures etc.)

Visit some of the reputable web sites out there (Motleyfool.com is one that's pretty good), buy a few of the overview issues of some money magazines (Fortune and Money and those usually have issues where they list and rank a bunch of funds/stocks/bonds/whatever).

Once you get some overall comfort with the pluses and minuses of the various instruments go ahead and do the investing yourself. If you want the simplified approach buy the mutual funds you are comfortable with; if you want a bit more personal interaction sign up with eTrade and buy whatever stocks/bonds you want.

Good luck,

Swede