That's fine, however it's important to be aware that for every expert, there's an opinion and for every opinion there's an expert. I have a friend who says that opinions are like noses: everyone has one but you wouldn't live in anyone else's nose!

Around first of year, along with New Year's resolutions, come New Year predictions for what will be hot and what will not. As if that isn't enough to produce a massive case of information indigestion, now we have cable financial shows with pretty much opinion of hour.

What this is producing is a frenzy of buy and sell activity for stocks in general, and now for mutual funds as well. I don't think this approach serves either investors in particular or funds in general.

The big problem with this for mutual fund investors is that all experts are recommending different funds. It might be one thing if experts had a solid basis for their perspective. If they did, then you would think their recommendations would line up and they'd all be touting same thing.

But they don't and they aren't. Oh sure, each one of them can make a good case for their pick. But so can next "expert." And usually both of them won't be right (if either of them is). So, where's value in this for you? Beats me.

Another problem with this approach is that many experts recommend different funds at different times, and, in an effort to be in hot fund, investors keep moving from fund to fund.

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.