most social news sites like reddit and digg consist of a clique of a dozen or so people who control the flow of discussion, and dissent is down-voted. such is life. That's why I work for myself so I call the shots.
I'm of the tiny, minority unpopular opinion that believes you can beat the market by picking stocks,. I have done so consistently for the past decade. Pick large cap companies with huge growth, high barriers to entry, insulated from economic trends, no debt, and high profit margins.
My favorites:
MA, V, BABA, GOOG, FB, JNJ, GILD, HD
That's not many, but these are some of the best long term investment ideas I can find. Stay away from volatile, macro-sensitive sectors like oil, materials, and retail and stick to healthcare, consumer staples, and utilities. People are getting older and wanting to live longer which is bullish for healthcare, and the web isn't going anywhere even if oil is going to $40.
There are many strategies that beat the market and provide as good risk adjusted returns as an index fund .
Warren Buffett , btw, broke his on advice of avoiding tech by buying IBM, which has lagged the market considerably. most of the time Warren Buffett doesn't pick stocks in the traditional sense but instead gets special preferred shares that pay huge dividends and other perks. The performance of BRK.B is influenced more by the private companies like Geico and than stocks like Coke.
The idea is terrible because you lack the qualifications to answer questions outside if your own personal expertise (whatever that may be). Second, assuming you get questions, you will be working at $20-10/hour. Not much money. So yeah, two thumbs down. awful idea
It's as frivolous as asking why the executives of Nike have millions but the majority of people who buy Nikes don't.