The New-York Times reported on January 6, 2006 that IBM has decided to freeze its Pension Plans once and for all. And that it has instead decided to funnel all future contributions to its 401(k) plan alone. More large companies are expected to follow suit, sounding the final death-knell for defined-benefit pension plans in US. This trend is not new, and most young workers today have no expectations of a pension from their companies. That means each of us has to make sure that we save and invest for our own future retirement, which often implies developing a portfolio north of $1 million to fund a comfortable retirement.

Boom times for Investment Advice
This ongoing shift of burden on to the average individual has led to:

1. A mushrooming of web-sites that provide advice and information about stocks and investing (fool.com, financialsense.com come to mind).
2. Soaring popularity of TV shows centred around investing (Mad Money on CNBC, CNBC itself as a business channel, Bloomberg TV).
3. The number of financial advisors increasing sharply, as individuals and corporations seek out advisors to help themselves and their employees. According to the Occupational Information Network, the growth rate in this profession will remain above average at 21-35% through at least 2012 (which means a doubling every 2-3 years!).
4. A dramatic increase in the number of mutual funds (numbers continue to be in the 10,000+ range)
5. And due to the tepid returns in the markets, a huge increase in the number of hedge funds and other alternative investment funds (significantly raising the risk profile for many investment portfolios).

Ill Prepared

Our educational system and our corporate work environment do not adequately prepare us for the world of investing. But we are forced to become investors nevertheless. This has had the unfortunate consequence of forcing us into one of two pathways:

1. Either learn everything there is to learn about investing until we become good at it, or
2. Hand it all over to a financial advisor and hope and pray she is a good one!

Choice #1 is hardly a real choice. Investing is a life-long learning experience, and becoming good at it requires tons of hard work (like any other profession). Choice #2 is more helpful, and yet to completely hand over all control of your financial affairs is not the best situation either. Most individuals begin by attempting to do it all by themselves. But when they finally get tired of either losing money, or as happens more frequently, making no headway, they switch to #2 - only to wonder later if they have done the right thing in handing over the reigns so completely. There is however another resource which can yet save the day, and that is the world of Investment Newsletters.

Are there good Investments Newsletters out there?
Of course we all have seen advertisements of some newsletters in our junk mail at home or in our spam folders. But most of those are either new or do not have a stellar track record. But there are several very good newsletters out there, whose editors have a long and successful track record. Using the excellent services of Hulbert Financial Digest one can pick out the really good ones from the also rans. Investment Newsletters offer that happy medium between educating the investor and providing direct recommendations. And today, they cover a wide spectrum of investment vehicles:

1. Mutual funds
2. Individual Stocks
3. Bonds and other Income generating vehicles
4. Gold & Other precious metals markets

and so on. You can pick one based on your favorite market area! Even after one has subscribed to a newsletter (or two), there is a discipline to be applied in order to profit:

1. Do not read only a few issues
   Most of the time, when you sign-up, the newsletter would have some ongoing recommendations. Following those recommendations is like getting onto an elevator mid-way. You may still get some growth, but you could be close to the end. Be mindful of that possibility. This makes it important to give the newsletter enough time (about 2 years) to make some new recommendations and for those recommendations to work out.
2. Follow the recommendations strictly
   An error that a fresh newsletter subscriber frequently makes is not following instructions closely enough. The individual investor has a tendency to insert his own judgment along with the recommendations of the newsletter editor. This causes a problem because the editor is making recommendations from a deeply developed sense of the markets, while the individual investor, most of the time, is simply guessing. This combination can at best, significantly reduce profits, and at worst, cause serious loss of money. Stick to the advice- you are paying for it!
3. Understand investing versus speculating
   In many newsletters, recommendations would be directed at a speculator versus an investor. Understand the difference between the two, and divide your capital suitably. Do not use money that is meant for investing in speculation - that is no better then betting on a gambling table in Vegas. Speculation implies a chance for catastrophic losses. Be careful.
4. Subscribe to Alerts or Warning Bulletins
   These are extra services offered by newsletter writers in order to be able to reach you between issues. These may be expensive, but even one tip a year would pay for itself. Always subscribe to these services.
5. Pay attention to what the editor is saying
   This goes beyond following recommendations closely. In fact, you may reach a point where you ignore everything and just follow the recommendations. Avoid that tendency. Pay close attention to the reasoning behind the decisions, and to the accompanying charts and graphs. This will devlop your own investing prowess to one day enable you to go it alone if you so chose.

Paying attention to these simple principles, you, as the individual investor, can maximize your returns from these newsletters and be riding towards a comfortable portfolio for your golden years. Investment newsletters represent one of the best choices for most individual investors to build up a hefty nest egg. You would still be well served by having a financial advisor for other areas of personal finance, but you would be in firm control of your investments!