Working with a new client brought this all to my attention. I know what I found may not apply to everyone; however it will apply to many and very likely apply to you.

I need to preface this by saying that, unlike majority of registered investment advisors, I have built my practice over past 15 years by dealing with “small” investors. Many of them are first timers because my minimum account size is only $5,000.

I targeted this group because I enjoy educational part of my business. A happy side benefit has been that by providing million dollar service to these so called “small” investors, they naturally refer me to parents, relatives, friends and business associates, often with considerably more assets than original client. What a happy consequence.

Having set stage, here's what happened with my new client who we will call John. John was 26, newly married with a one year old son. His wife was taking care of child and John had a good full time job. After selling his house in California and moving to Florida he had $6,000 left for starting a long-term investment program.

Though he had been reading my newsletter for about a year, John decided to manage his 401k on his own. It was a noble effort but provided less than desirable results.

Working with a fair number of investors over last nearly 20 years, I have observed that while most are intelligent people, and many are fairly knowledgeable about market, they are, as a group, not terribly successful with their investing.

Why should they be? More likely than not they have made their living doing something other than investing, so why would they think they can do what a professional does better than a professional? (After all, they go to professionals for health care or for car repairs when needed!)

Most investors-even some professionals-tend to be "off" in their timing: they buy things when they are hot, not when they are cold. But for greatest benefit, it should be opposite. The media doesn't help much when it comes to this buying approach, and let's face it; greed and fear play a large part in most peoples' investment decisions.

I truly believe majority of people would be better of (that is, they would end up with more money at end of day) if they used professional money managers to advise them on their investing. Specifically I am referring to Registered Investment Advisors with proven track records of performance in investing in stocks, bonds, mutual funds

Let me burst one myth right off bat: You don't have to be a millionaire to engage services of a topnotch advisor. Some people think you need to start an account with $50,000 or more to get a really good advisor. Well, you may have more choices if you're at that level, however you can find very successful Investment Advisors who will accept opening accounts for as little as $5000.

There are literally thousands of Registered Investment Advisors in US. Just what do they do-what service do they provide you? They do legwork; research and analysis. Maybe more importantly, they keep their primary focus on markets, and specifically on their specialty area like individual stocks, mutual funds, or bonds.