I've tried a bunch of different approaches to personal investing.  I've done it myself by buying equities or funds and also relied on expensive advice from a large investment bank.  Neither approach really sat that well with me for a variety of reasons.

First, I tried making my own decisions which required too much time and investigation, especially when I invested directly in individual equities.  I just didn't have the time to manage a well balanced portfolio since it wasn't my profession.  This gets even more complicated when you consider in order to have a well balanced portfolio, I'd need to invest in fixed income securities and probably alternative assets (like real estate).  Second, I tried using an advisor from a big investment, but at 1.5% of assets, that proved far too expensive especially when bonds were yielding 4-5% (so after taxes, inflation and expenses, I wasn't getting any real return).

Finally, I tried Financial Engines (full disclosure: I worked on Financial Engines attempted IPO, but I do NOT own any interest in the company and do NOT have a relationship with their current management).  I really think of Financial Engines as investing for the rest of us.  Basically this website works as follows: 1) input your current portfolio (stocks, bonds, cash, options, etc) and describe your investment goal (retirement, college, etc) and how much you want and when.  This process takes about 30-60 minutes and is aided by Financial Engines' ability to pull in your account information.

From there, Financial Engines runs hundreds of Monte Carlo simulations and spits out a probability of achieving your goal.  You can then adjust the probabilities my messing with your retirement age, risk tolerance, etc.

So what do you do if your probability is pretty freakin' low?  Well, Financial Engines will give you advice on what funds to invest in to reach your goals.  The funds are generally low cost and highly rated by Morningstar.  My experience to date has been very solid.  The system has made solid fund picks and my asset allocation is what I expect for someone my age.

So why should you trust Financial Engines? Well, this is entirely a personal choice.  I trust their advice for 2 main reasons: 1), Bill Sharpe, their founder, is a noble laureate and someone I studied in college and business school. I figure if this guy is smart enough to win a noble prize, his advice should be good enough for me (note: I haven't forgotten what happens when smart people get into trouble like at Long Term Capital so I have no allusions) and 2) I double check every recommendation and at times don't follow their advice (i.e. let's say I don't want to put more money into a certain fund, I just don’t do it).  This gives me enough confidence I still have control.

By the way, Financial Engines isn't free, but I think it is worth the cost (which is around $300).  Also, don’t expect to beat the market consistently.  However, you should expect to achieve market returns with less volatility.