Don't Perform Surgery on Your Retirement

Imagine that you just learned you had breast cancer and you needed to have surgery to remove a cancerous substance?  What would you do?  I'd bet that you'd start researching breast cancer and start learning a great deal of information.  Of course this would be great because then you could formulate some great questions. This would help you choose a doctor that was well educated, experienced and that you were comfortable with.  But in the end, you definitely wouldn't start performing the surgery on yourself!

So why do so many think that they should handle their own retirement decisions? Is it enough to do some part time reading and find a few good tips on the internet?  I love the tips you can find and am a big fan of Suze Orman.  In fact, no one will care about your money more than you, so it is in your best interest to learn about fundamental time tested principles.  At www.forbes.com, the question is posed as to whether Americans need a financial planner. I'd say your best option is to research a ton so that you have great ideas to work with. But in the end, when it comes to investing, let's keep the scalpel in the hands of the professional.

This post was reposted from http://finlit.biz/retirement-2/dont-perform-surgery-on-your-retirement/, originally written on January 19th, 2013.