It's time for poker players to start putting their money to work.

[Scorpion Man]

What I have written is NOT the best way to get rich investing. In fact, I bought my first index 6 months ago, at the ripe age of 37. I never bought indexes...its nowhere near as good as individual stocks.

That said, buying indexes is much better than slinging individual stocks against a wall if you don't know what you are doing. There are basically no 20 year olds who know what they are doing in the market. There were a lot of guys like your friends in the bubble, pretty much all of them go toast.

If they can't read a balance sheet, they are not going to be consistent winners in the market in the long term, IMO.

After my other post to the $5k portfolio question, I went for a run and realized that I was giving advice I never followed myself. The real answer for a $5k portfolio is 2 buy 2 stocks, maybe 3. The problem is that most people with a $5k portfolio are not qualified to pick those stocks. If you have a rich uncle or something who is good in the market, that is the way to go.