If you pick a few stocks on your own, though, one or more may turn out to be stinkers, though -- that happens to the best of us, even Warren Buffett. But most of us aren't really savvy stock pickers, with a deep understanding of how to evaluate stocks. So we might wisely choose to stick with a broad index fund of stocks, instead.

U.S. stocks rose after the Federal Reserve lowered its benchmark interest rates by 50 basis points to a range of 4.75% to 5%. That was the first rate cut in over four years that marked the beginning of a monetary-easing cycle in the world's largest economy.