Virtually all investment advice from professionals are stupid. What I wrote at the New York Times which was full of terrible advice.

"Why Investing Is So Complicated, and How to Make It Simpler"

Simple and safe: Do not buy mutual funds and do not pay for advice. Make your own decisions. Do not share your retirement income with professionals.

After doing your own research (I recommend Seeking Alpha for free advice from successful investors), buy only shares of corporations with a very long history of raising the dividend every year. Keep these shares for the rest of your life. Reinvest the dividends (there is no fee to do this) and spend every spare dollar on more shares. When your dividend income is greater than your income from your job, you can retire. And if you start using this strategy at a young age, you will be able to retire long before you're old enough to collect Social Security. When you retire your income should be enough to be able to continue buying more shares of dividend paying stocks to increase your income for the rest of your life.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/12/upshot/investing-in-the-dark-the-biggest-cost-of-fear-is-paralysis.html?abt=0002&abg=0

At Charles Schwab it's only $8.95 to buy an unlimited number of shares and for reinvesting dividends there is no fee. I agree with "Buying mutual funds is a fool's game: no matter how low the fees, they still drag down returns." People should make their own buying decisions and not share their income with anyone. If people buy shares of companies with a long history of increasing the dividend every year, even during the worst recessions, and keep those shares for the rest of their lives, they will never have to care if the stock market crashes because their dividend income is safe. I'm retired and I live off the dividends, and I keep buying more shares, increasing my income even though I don't need it. I love market crashes because they're a great buying opportunity.