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Even just a few years ago, you could get away with not knowing much about investing. All you had to do was work for a company for a few decades, and you knew that they would take care of you the rest of your life with a nice pension. That's not the case anymore. People now change jobs every few years, and companies, for the sake of their corporate profits, don't want to commit themselves to any long-term financial burdens. Hence the shift in retirement management from Defined Benefit plans (pensions, which the company was in charge of running) to Defined Contribution plans (401k's, etc, which the individual employee funds and manages themselves). With a 401k-based retirement plan, if you want to retire, you need to fund your 401k. If you don't invest enough money, or you choose the wrong investments (more about that later), you're out of luck. No retirement, just keep working until you die.
So, if you want to retire at some point in your life, you are in charge of making sure you can do that. That requires at least a basic grasp of a few basic investment principles, and it requires that you've done two critical things: chosen appropriate investments, and funded them adequately throughout your working career.
Most people right now aren't doing this, and therefore will be in the unfortunate circumstance of retiring much later than they want to (age 75 instead of 65, for instance), or retiring with an income that only allows a standard of living that's much lower than they were used to while working.
So, where do you fit in? And, more importantly, what will this web site do for you? I've designed this site to give you exactly the information you need to design and carry out your retirement investment plan. While you should learn everything you can about financial planning, I'm going to try to convey the basics here, so you will know enough to craft a plan that will allow you to retire when you want to, with the retirement income you want. Hopefully, you'll end up wanting to know more, and will read a few more things, and become your own expert. You can manage your money just as well as (and likely much better than!) any so-called "professional". You just need a little information.
Disclaimer: I have no professional certifications related to finance or investing, and don't intend anything on this page to be interpreted as specific financial or legal counsel for your situation. I'm merely presenting ideas based on my own research, which you may or may not find useful.