One might suggest entrusting one's money to smarter men, men investing as a full time job. The typical choice would be a mutual fund, where investments can be spread to diversify much farther than an individual could, as a diverse portfolio is universally held to be good investing practice. Unfortunately, fees within the mutual fund industry have been the subject of Supreme Court cases (e.g. Jones v. Harris Associates) as rational minds have attempted to rein them in. The case most recently ruled on revealed that one mutual fund would charge as much as twice as high a fee to individual consumers as corporate pension fund partners for the exact same services. The average mutual fund turns over its portfolio entirely every year (Bogle 36), and the expenses (even without fees) associated with this are not trivial. In fact, the overall cost of equity fund ownership can be 3-3.5%/yr: the expense ratio is about 1.5%/yr, adding 0.5-1%/yr for sales charges and portfolio turnover up to 1%/yr.