The most difficult part of investing is figuring out who to trust to provide you with reliable information. Some people find a private and independent investment company that works for them. Some are more comfortable with a "clubby" stable family based partnership" culture group. Regardless of your preferences, you want an organization that has a history of successful investment management. If you have the right connections, the opportunity exists for clients to invest alongside the management of certain organizations, on a multi manager "best of breed" approach through either Asset Management or indirect investments through Private Equity.

But, that's not for the average person.

To start with, you need to assess how much risk you are comfortable with in your investments. You may have several "classes" of investments, and associate different risks with different classes. For example, you may have investment for retirement, which you are somewhat conservative with. And, you may have your "cash on hand" invested very conservatively; but, you may have a "mad money" investment account that you are fairly risky about; if you lose it all, you'll cry, but you won't miss a mortgage payment.

There are 2 rules and one trick with investing. First the rules: #1. Never invest in something you are not fairly knowledgeable about. For example, I have a black thumb when it comes to plants. I kill them. Not on purpose, I'm just not a plant person. So, investing in agriculture would be a bad choice for me, because I just don't get the "things growing out of the ground" thing. Rule #2: never invest money you can't afford to lose. Doing this almost guarantees that you'll lose it. It's like some cosmic rule.

And the trick: the trick with investing is to invest "intelligently" - by that I mean to open your eyes and pay attention to the world. Some people try and cheat their way past this, buy using "insider information", a la Martha Stewart, the convicted felon. I mean, did you really need insider information to know to invest in Home Depot or Lowes after Katrina? And anyone paying the slightest attention to the trend in gas prices over the last 30 years, and the fact that gas is going for over $6.00 per gallon in Europe should have been able to figure out that investing in oil companies was a no-brainer. Yes, having "insider information" can make a few extra bucks for you - but it's morally wrong to do that, and a felony on top of that. Do you really need to go there?