I'm curious to know what most people are doing with regard to managing their investment portfolio(s). Do most of you self-manage / self-direct, or do you let a professional money manager handle your investments for you?
And if you use a professional manager, do you typically pay by the transaction, or do you just pay an overall percentage of your portfolio value?
I've been a self-directed investor since about 1991 when my wife and I got married and opened our first mutual fund account. Since then, we've built up a portfolio of 401K's, IRA's, and various mutual fund accounts for things like college funds and regular non-tax-sheltered money.
Everything is self directed and has mostly been into mutual funds the entire time (and still is). I've purchased a few individual stocks here and there, but pretty much every one of those transactions ended up as a loss. Whenever you want the market to go down, just let me know and I'll buy some stock!
Case in point: I STILL own CSCO and MSFT which I purchased right before the bubble burst in early 2000. 
I know I could be doing SO much better with my investments, but I can't get myself to do anything different with the money. I'm constantly tossing around various possibilities such as getting out of funds and doing value investing instead, turning everything over to a professional and trusting them, or just moving everything into fixed income guaranteed investments.
I'd love to hear some thoughts and stories about how others deal with this dilemma.
Thanks!
Dave