thanks to everyone for all the help. I was finally able to do this by following these steps

chmod +s /usr/bin/smbmnt /usr/bin/smbmount
mkdir ~/mnt

added this line to /etc/fstab
//server/share /home/me/mnt smbfs rw,noauto,user 0 0

so now I'm able to mount it in a subdir within my home directory

Congratulations. FYI, you can mount that share anywhere, doesn't have to be in your home directory. I assume that you have to enter the username and password when you issue the mount command.