Joseph...

I don't put much faith in CPA's aside from doing taxes. I find them to be historians and if you get to know any most earn very low returns on their own investments. By their own admission, they aren't much on risk. A good fee based Certified Financial Planner can be a great help. Those that don't charge a fee will only recommend investments they sell.

I've invested for a lot of years successfully. The first advice I'd give is learn the "rule of 72". In short it's a formula that will tell you based on the annual return on an investment, how long it will take for that investment to double. Divide 72 by the rate of return and the result is the amount of time it will take for the investment to double in value. Example: $5,000 invested with a 15% annual return rate will double to $10,000 in 4.8yrs. In my own portfolio I look for a 15% rate, and since 1999 I've averaged 14.99 which is close enough for me.

I'm one who's loath to take equity out of my home for investing purposes. In my own case, my mortgage is 6%, so as long as I can make more than that investing I'm fine. If I had credit card debt that was 18%, I'd pay that off first, only because if I can make 15% on my investments I'm still falling behind at the rate of 3%.

Investing is a big picture game made up of many small pieces that you try to bring together with each contibuting it's own part.
Hope this helps...
Denny