Hold a 20 pound note out of the window and say you want help investing it.

More seriously, I would like to comment because I recently left my stock broker. He was a nice guy. Knowledgeable, attentintive and provided a high quality service. He was always on hand to discuss investment ideas and I suppose, prevented me from making a few basic errors - although nothing major. In many ways, I miss having him around.

So why did I leave ?

It was a hard nosed value-decision. He cost upwards of £100 per trade, plus a small management fee. His performance could be described as typical - by that I mean, like any broker, some winners, some losers. I wanted to make quite few changes in the balance and struture of my portfolio (actually to simplify and diversify) and it would have cost me a lot of money to do that. Also, again like most brokers, he was on commission - so looking back, I now realise that every once in a while, I'd be nudged toward making a trade that had no material impact on on the portfolio. So I moved on line and do it myself. Yes, of course it's a bit scary at first - flinging large (to me) numbers into cyberspace with no one to hold your hand - but i'll be better on in the long run.

TLDR; if you follow the most basic advice available, you can and should do it yourself. A broker with give you a lot of confidence and hod your hand, but is very unlikely to improve on a level of financial performance you can achieve yourself.

bonus tip : try a demo account somewhere, to become familiar with the machinations of an online broker. When the fear factor has gone, deposit some real money. If you have a lump sum, choose 4 or 5 top rated funds and buy them. Forget it for a month, 3 months if you can. THen go back and see how you've done. Barring some kind of crash, your money will still be there, maybe a little more, maybe a little less, but it will still be there. If you dont like it, cash out and try something else.