For years, I stayed away from investing in individual stocks. Sure, I could do index funds and bonds, no problem! The moment I had my first $5,500 saved up after graduate school, I opened a retirement account.Wham, bam, boom and suddenly, I was an investor with a diversified portfolio! YAY! *spirit hands waving* It was the smartest way I could invest money without a degree in finance and an encyclopedic knowledge of investing, or so I thought at the time. (Probably true, I was a bit of an idiot.) In 2007, Warren Buffett (who's basically the living Buddha of value investing, which is what most people think of when contemplating stocks) famously bet 1 MILLION BUCKS that an index fund would out perform a collection of hedge funds over the course of 10 years. Guess what? Despite a ton of people trying, Buffett won (surprise, surprise) and a charity named Girls, Inc. won, cause Good Guy Warren donated that million dollar prize to them. That was the philosophy I subscribed to for...