It is easy to beat the market and invest well because most of thevworld is operating from a position of ignorance. You don't need secret or insider knowledge, you just need to know what you know, and know what you don't know. Buffett calls his a circle of competence. I studied investing, did ok, studied economics and then discovered that the world is full of ignorant or misinformed people who cling to their misinformation. Example- look at everyone bashing gold.
The conventional wisdom is you need someone to manage your money for you because you can't beat the market, and because that is such a common belief, I find it easy to beater the market.
Gold is a good hedge against financial crisis. Whenever the Dow has a day of selling, you'll usually see people buying lots of commodity ETFs like GLD or IAU.
The thing I like about gold is that it responds well to all types of financial crisis. Inflation risk? Gold goes up. Deflation/deleveraging risk? Gold goes up as well.
The conventional wisdom is you need someone to manage your money for you because you can't beat the market, and because that is such a common belief, I find it easy to beater the market.