Countless times people call me up asking for help; however,their plea usually comes with the condition “I don’t want tospend a lot of time or do a lot of work because I’m just anaverage investor.” Is that you? Well, Joe Smith consideredhimself an average investor.Joe retired in 2003. He had done well during his workingyears and had a retirement income of $6,500 per month,including Social Security. He had saved about $623,000 as anest egg for emergencies in his retirement. He still owed about$350,000 on his house. Joe and his wife debated a lot aboutwhether they should pay off the mortgage with their cash. Thehouse payment was nearly $2,000 per month, and if they paid itoff, they’d have plenty of money to spend each month and littleto worry about.Joe had lost about 30 percent of his retirement nest eggduring the market crash from 2000 to 2003. However, in 2003the market was going up. Joe figured the worst was over and heprobably could make 10 percent per year on his money. Thatwould give them an additional $5,000 per month for spending,which more than covered his mortgage payment. Joe had anadvanced degree in civil engineering, and as far as he wasconcerned, investing wasn’t rocket science. He’d do well in themarket because he was a smart guy. Chances are, he thought,he could be better than average and get his account back up toa million dollars (the way it was before the 2000 crash).Joe made a mistake that many people make. He’d spentnearly eight years learning his profession and much of hislife staying on top of it. He thought he was smart enough to
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