(Part 2) Reddit mentions: The best introduction in investing books

Caution: Wall of text to follow.

Firstly, congrats on caring at a young age about your finances. That's something not a lot of people can say. With that being said I'll like to take each of your paragraphs in turn and answer your questions at the end.

NOTE: If you just want answers to your questions and not my advice skip ahead.

> While I believe that there are some truths behind "Money doesn't buy happiness", it is a lot easier to be happy knowing that you are well-off.

As a word to the wise from someone a little further down the road let me just say there is more truth than you yet realize in those 4 simple words. Many people don't come to see the truth till their old age looking back on a life filled with regret, so take some time now and seriously contemplate it, because the reality is in 85 very short years you'll likely be dead, and all you ever had will belong to someone else. If the only happiness you get in this life is seeing dollars in your bank account you'll miss out on a lot.

> The leading cause of divorces are because of financial issues. I mean, that has to speak for something.

In the vast majority of divorces it's not a lack of money that's the problem, it's a lack of agreeing on what to do with the money that is. Marriage can work below the poverty line, and above the 1% line. The financial issues of marriage aren't solved with just "more money!"

> I want to be able to support myself, other family members who aren't as well off, and be able to buy my kids (if I have them) a car, pay for their college funds, etc.

Supporting your own family is honorable, but beware when helping out "less fortunate" family members. There are many, many problems that can arise from that if not done properly, and enabling a family member will only make their situation worse, not help them.

> I don't want to be a doctor. Or a lawyer. . . . . who can bank at least a million in one year.

That is a very big dream, but it's not unrealistic. Big dreams are good, and as long as you can approach them level headed they help give you focus. I say that your dream is worthwhile, and although I caution against greed as it can destroy you and your life, there is nothing wrong with wanting to be a CEO making $1,000,000.

ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTIONS

> So tell me. Where do I start investing and also building my way up to becoming the CEO of a company?

You start right where you are. There is nothing stopping you from pursuing your dream now. Begin with learning. Learn what it takes to be a CEO, learn how other CEO's have done it, learn what your talents are. There will be much learning for you starting out.

I recommend the internet and a library card. Read a CEO's biography (it's as close as you'll come to getting to interview some CEO's). How is it that Donald Trump was able to go from rags to riches twice?! What would it take for you to do that? Learn all there is to learn about running a business, being a leader, and leading a successful venture.

> At what age?

NOW! Bill gates was already writing software and starting Microsoft at your age (not to say you're behind or anything like that.) There is no age limit on being a CEO, and there is certainly no age limit on learning and working hard.

> What majors in college should I be looking at?

This will be up to you and what you feel you would be good at. Do you want to be a CEO just to be a CEO, perhaps some business major then? Learn from other CEO's stories and what they majored in.

> And at what colleges?

Personally there is little impact based on what school you choose. There are CEO's that never went to college, and there are CEO's that went to Yale/Princeton.

The fact is it takes maybe $200 to start an LLC and call yourself a CEO, no college degree needed. What comes after that is actually making the money! In order to do that you have to provide a good or service that people want. The more people you make happy, the more money you'll get.

Something you should know now is that starting a company, and running a company is HARD WORK. I know some owners of start-ups that had to work 60 - 90 hours a week with little to no sleep to build their business. I know others who fell into the CEO position because their daddy owned the company, and they were lazy, and thanks to their lack of action the company collapsed.

> And of course, looking to do this in a legal way.

Welcome to America :), where hard work, sacrifice and the willingness to learn and strive can and do payoff.

One last piece of advice: Don't be a jerk. When you become the CEO of a company and you are making the millions, when you someday are the hotshot, don't look down on those around you. Remember where you came from, and those that helped you along the way, and there will be those that will help you!

People will always respond better to someone who is nice than someone who is a jerk.

Here is some recommended reading once you get that library card:

• Start by Jon Acuff
  
  
• EntreLeadership by Dave Ramsey
  
  
• I will teach you to be Rich by Ramit Sethi
  
  
• The millionaire next door by Thomas Stanley
  
  
• The seven habits of highly effective people by Stephen Covey
  
  There are many more books, but that's a start.
  
  Jon Acuff went from amateur blogger to best selling author, and is a great motivational writer. His books make me want to run a marathon, and are good for motivating you.
  
  Dave Ramsey went from bankruptcy to running a 300 person business and earning in the %1 of earners in the nation with a national brand. His book is about being a leader in business and you'll need to lead if you want to be CEO. It's a hard job, and not nearly as cushy as you might think.
  
  Thomas Stanley is a researcher who studies those with a net worth over $1M and his book will show you that being rich doesn't contradict with a frugal lifestyle.
  
  The others and highly recommended in general!
  
  The fact is you'll need to grow up, turn off the TV, and look weird to your friends. How many 15 yr olds do you know reading books about how to run a company and studying up on what it takes to be a CEO, or how to start a business? I don't know many, but I do know that at 17 years old William Gates III started a joint venture with Paul Allen (their first business). They both went on to make the top 20 richest billionaires list. Bill still holds the top spot.
  
  If you want to be rich, you want to be a CEO, then work at it. Work at it now, work at it often, and work at it always. I have no doubt if you dedicate yourself you can do it. The fact of the matter is that most people reading this are tired just thinking of the work it takes to be CEO, and that's why they never will be.
  
  Best of luck on your future success, and don't forget the little people.
  
  ~ Dragon J.
  
  Edited for formatting.

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Now, I am not going to give you specific tips on investing in financial markets. It’s like telling a 6-year-old; “I see you learned to ride a bike, let’s go see what you can do in an Apache Helicopter.” It might be fun to watch but it really is not a good plan and anything the kid may learn would be lost on him as it crashes to the ground.

You heard the familiar adage about “Give a man fish, you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish…..yadda yadda” Instead I will list a few resources that will make your journey an educational, well informed and hopefully, very profitable one:

Step 1: (estimated time to master:2-3 days of intense reading)

First get an entry level book… you know the type, it breaks stuff down so simply, it is almost insulting…yea that type! Check your library, as although these books are fantastic for the very low level learning, once you master it, you might not refer back to this one too often,
Something like this (not a shill for any author or publisher):
https://www.amazon.com/Personal-Finance-Dummies-Eric-Tyson/dp/1118117859

Sure, it may be a bit dry and parts will seem numbingly simple but I guarantee you will learn a few new things, enhance your understanding of things you already know and begin building the most solid foundation you can. Like most things in life, the foundation will determine if your future efforts are sound or just primed for unforeseen disaster.

Step 1a: (estimated time to master:1-2 hours to learn, years of pounding it into your head)

Be able to define and clearly understand the concept of “Compound interest/growth.” I cringe at the number of people who fail to fully grasp this concept and the impact it can have your life and on the value of your portfolio. Study this concept like your life depends on it. Embrace it, love it, make it your bitch. This is the one and true monolith that stands taller than all others when it comes to taking a proper long term view of your investments. It is Wonka’s Golden Ticket. Once you think you are a Comp-Int ninja, learn it some more. Never lose sight of the goal and the primary mechanism that is going to get you to the promised land. Oh, and just to make sure you are beating this concept into your head, learn the meaning of “temporal dissonance” and how it relates to so many others failing to properly reach their goals. 30 years from now, you will thank me.

Step 2. (estimated time to master:1-2 weeks with additional web research to clarify questions and concepts)

Get another book or ten. One is good to start and should be directed more towards understanding actual beginner investment in stock markets.

https://www.amazon.com/Beginners-Guide-Investing-Money-Smart/dp/1477463992/ref=pd_sim_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1477463992&pd_rd_r=M1PDAGCEZ704BBNQ6JDR&pd_rd_w=1YX5U&pd_rd_wg=dLc5n&psc=1&refRID=M1PDAGCEZ704BBNQ6JDR

or

https://www.amazon.com/Investing-Online-Dummies-Matt-Krantz/dp/1119228352/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1484793761&sr=1-3&keywords=online+stock+trading+for+dummies

or

https://www.amazon.com/Stock-Investing-Dummies-Paul-Mladjenovic/dp/1119239281/ref=pd_sim_14_6?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1119239281&pd_rd_r=BZHS9CJZZWBRA86WN3MP&pd_rd_w=WSFFO&pd_rd_wg=rGrkD&psc=1&refRID=BZHS9CJZZWBRA86WN3MP
or find one YOU like…I am not a damn librarian.

When you are finished with this step you should be rather comfortable with most basic stock investing terms. Words like Equity, ETF, Mutual Funds, Preferred stock, Long, short will become part of your conversations at happy hour, chicks will dig you and guys will want to be like you. (I’m sorry, I just assumed your gender and orientation, please reverse that last phrase if it better suits your lifestyle). You will dream of S&P gains and have nightmares about the words: bear, correction and SEC investigation. In other words, you are now shaping up as a solid investor with years of prosperity in front of you. Alas, you are not there yet grasshopper…

(continued)

0. Read The Truth About Money by Ric Edelman, it covers all the basics

https://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Money-4th/dp/0062006487/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1522467370&sr=8-1&keywords=the+truth+about+money


1. Have Zero debt


2. Live as cheaply as possible but maintain a healthy balance between frugality and enjoying life. Save 50% or more of your net income

$72,000 gross annual income - 22% federal tax - 9% California state tax - $16,800 annual expenses = $32,880

If you save all of that $32,880 every year, you might be able to achieve financial independence in 10 years (with some caveats, do read the fine print and do all your research about FI):

https://networthify.com/calculator/earlyretirement?income=49680&initialBalance=0&expenses=16800&annualPct=5&withdrawalRate=4

Also see https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/

3. Three to 12 months living expenses ($4,200 to $16,800) in a liquid account (bank checking/savings or Vanguard Prime Money Market VMMX).

Liquid means you have instant access (or max 3 days) to your money. This is money you CANNOT put in the stock market, it MUST be liquid and low-risk. Bank CDs are not liquid enough.

Three months because it ideally takes you that long to find your next job. 12 months and you have plenty of cushion. Ideally you'd take 2-3 months to take off and chill in between jobs.

With your remaining money, you can take a long-term outlook, meaning put it in the stock market as per below but you can't touch it for at least 20 years because that's how long you'd expect the market to even out the lows and the highs.

4. Maximum IRS annual contribution to Traditional 401k plan ($18,500 as of 2018).

That's $18,500 you're shielding from income taxes. Where do you invest the money? Stock index funds with the cheapest expense ratio you can find (0.06% or cheaper) and annual returns of 6% or better like VFIAX, VTSAX, or VBIAX.

Beyond those funds, if you want to fine tune your ratio of risk to return, you'll need to understand the difference between small-cap, medium-cap, large-cap, and their permutations (small-cap growth, small-cap value, mid-cap growth, mid-cap value, large-cap growth, large-cap value), and ideally you'd buy only index funds of these permutations, as index funds have lower expense ratios than managed funds. Don't forget international stock index funds.

Given that you're age 29, if you want to retire at age 59.5, let your money ride the stock market and grow for most of the next 30.5 years.

As you get closer to age 59.5, adjust your allocation, i.e., shield your money from the volatility of stock index funds by moving your money toward the safety of bond index funds according to a formula, on which opinions vary:

https://www.financialsamurai.com/the-proper-asset-allocation-of-stocks-and-bonds-by-age/

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/062714/100-minus-your-age-outdated.asp

http://money.cnn.com/retirement/guide/investing_basics.moneymag/index7.htm

5. Maximum IRS annual contribution to personal IRA ($5,500 as of 2018).

Personal meaning over and above your employer's 401k plan. Unfortunately that's $5,500 after income taxes. You might as well put this money in a Roth IRA (versus a Traditional IRA). Where do you invest the money? I'd take the same approach in #4.

However, the advantage of a Traditional IRA (versus Roth) is you can rollover your Traditional 401k money into this Traditional IRA as you move from employer to employer without worrying about conversion calculations. I suppose you could also rollover your Traditional 401k money into a Roth IRA but I don't know how complicated that is.

6. Brokerage account with Schwab (or your preferred broker).

With the remaining money (not counting money you need for short-term financial goals like buying a car, etc), open a trading account with Schwab and buy more stock index funds with the same long-term outlook as #4 and #5 (more money toward retirement).

Keep in mind each trade (buy or sell) will cost you $5+ no matter how many shares you buy/sell.

You must be ok with not touching this money for the next 20+ years, although you can sell in an emergency without the early withdrawal penalty of your retirement accounts.

Ideally you'd only sell after minimum 1 year so you pay the long-term capital gains tax rate of 15% and not your standard income tax rate which is currently 22%.

Online courses are really hit or miss. Most college courses on "business" don't really teach how to start or run a small business. They either teach big business... how to work in a large corporation... or how to create a startup. Both of those are markedly different from starting and running a small business (even an online one).

There are some great books about starting and running a small business, though. Here are a few of my favorites:

Financial Intelligence for Entrepreneurs

This is an excellent book on business finances for the non-accounting types. I took accounting classes in college but never really got what all the financial reports really meant to my business' health. This will teach you what's important in the reports, what you should look out for, and how to read them. This is critically important for a small business owner to understand, even if you plan to hire a bookkeeper and accountant.

The E-myth Revisited by Michael Gerber

Awesome book about building systems in your business to really grow it to the point where it's not just a job for the owner. It's easy to read and probably one of the top 5 business books of all time.

Entreleadership by Dave Ramsey

This is a good book and covers several different aspects of entrepreneurship from hiring and managing employees to marketing, setting the vision, etc. It's hokey at times, but is a good read.

The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People by Stephen Covey

Not necessarily a "small business" book, but easily my top #1 book recommendation of all time. It's hugely applicable to any professional, or anyone really. I re-read this book every couple of years and still get more out of it after almost 20 years.

Getting Things Done by David Allen

THE productivity book. Even if you only absorb and implement 25% of the strategies in this book it will make a huge difference in your level of productivity. It's really the game-changing productivity system. This is one of the biggest problems with small business owners - too much to do and no organization. Great read.

You really need to read the personal finance wiki.

First, get some tax advantaged savings going. You have a lot of options, but picking any option is better than picking no options. While you are educating yourself, here are some alright choices you can make for this year:

Open a ROTH IRA

1. Go to Vanguard.com and follow the instructions to open an individual ROTH IRA
   
2. Contribute you max for the year (probably $5500 for you)
   
3. Vanguard will ask you to put that money into an account of some kind. That account will hold your money's worth of stocks or bonds. I would get VFINX with is an S&P500 fund. This is a single fund that disperses your risk over the top 500 funds as measured by Standard and Poors. It is a very safe investment with a yield of around %5-%7 over long time horizons.
   
4. Forget about that money until you retire.
   
   Does your company have a 401K? You need to get money into it.
   
   
5. Talk to your employer about increasing your contribution to whatever it will take to reach $18500 by the end of the year
   
6. Make a plan to live on the $24.5K you have remaining in your bank account after the above ROTH IRA contribution
   
   At the end of the year, you will have reduced your pre-tax income by $18500 and you will have $5500 in an account you can withdraw from tax free after you turn 59.5 years old. The ROTH IRA will grow tax free from now until when you retire.
   
   NEXT STEP: GET EDUCATED
   
   
7. Read the entire personal finance wiki. Its pretty good and gets to the point.
   
8. Read Get a financial life. The book is cheap and a nice intro for young people doing personal finance. It isn't comprehensive, and its not the last book you'll read. This book will tell you how to handle debt, save for retirement, buy a car, and it will help you save to buy a house. Once you have read it and have a solid understanding, you should keep seeking out personal finance knowledge.
   
9. If you plan on buying a home, go to a home-buying class. Your city will probably put some on in the local library.
   
10. Keep finding and reading books about personal finance.

Real estate has the benefit of being equity that can yield you a pretty high income and you can shelter your earnings from taxes by incorporating. (Think rental property - the property has value but it also yields rental income) Of all the rags to riches stories out there, most people seem to do it with real estate.

A good portfolio of dividend-bearing stocks is a great source of passive income. Investment earnings are only taxed at 15% so you get to keep most of it but you have to build a large investment (read: hundreds of thousands of dollars) before you'll get returns that you could live on.

I've never considered franchising or other types of business ownership but most millionaires own their own business, so keep that in mind.

I have a feeling you would LOVE Rich Dad, Poor Dad. It doesn't get a lot of love for useful content, but it presents a really good way of looking at money a bit differently that has stuck with me for a long time.

Let me start off by saying your comment made my day, thank you. Also, if I could give some encouragement, it'd be that understanding market sentiment for commodities isn't something that comes naturally to anyone. I spend a lot of time online at night researching - kind of became a hobby. I'd highly recommend getting a Seeking Alpha account and putting gold ETFs on your watchlist to get articles on gold. Read anything that's written by Avi. I've learned an immense amount from him. (I also like Taylor Dart.) What you just said about 'the economy doing great so gold would do bad' is a pretty common mistake. Don't take any "truths" on gold as a certainty. Sometimes it moves inverse the SP500, sometimes it moves inverse the dollar, but not always. It's not a hedge. It crashed alongside the SPX during 2008. It's pretty correlated with the Yen and inflation expectations, but knowing that won't really help you in the long run. Fundamental analysis will only get you so far. People will use news to explain price action after the fact, never before - because it doesn't work.

"Gold moved $10 today because Trump tweeted something mean about China." BS... there's always news going on. You can know everything about global economies and still not be a successful gold trader. But basic technical analysis and market sentiment will get you pretty far. I look at the CFTC report (https://www.investing.com/economic-calendar/cftc-gold-speculative-positions-1618) for a reference on how people are positioned. See how in August gold was at one of the highest net long positions ever? Red flag.

As for technical analysis, I watch plenty of YouTube chartists. If you want to think like a technician, you have to listen to them. Lastly, I love this book (https://www.amazon.com/Charting-Technical-Analysis-Fred-Mcallen/dp/1456468693/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1483683042&sr=8-3&keywords=technical+analysis+of+the+financial+markets) too. It's not dry at all, and was a great starting point. Happy trading.

I'm gonna echo what u/StrukkStar said. If you think through your assertion carefully the logic doesn't hold up.

I currently have a similar amount of savings as yourself, but by the logic of your post I should take it all out now, right? The fees to sell with my broker are minimal so there's really nothing holding me back. Literally there is no difference between our situations except inertia. So don't I?

Because the market on average is going up, and I can't predict how it will behave. If teams of quants and high paid executives and high performance machine-learning algorithms looking through reams of data can only get it right 50.001% of the time, then my thinking I can speculate better is pure hubris.

So what do you do? Reduce risk with dollar cost averaging? That is invest a portion of it every month to reduce your timing risk? There's three situations that can happen then:

• 1. The market goes goes down, well you shouldn't have invested then. And so what if you did, you're saving for retirement, in a year or two it will have averaged out.
     
• 2. The market stays the same. Then it makes no difference whether you lump-sum it in or drip-feed it.
     
• 3. The market goes up... well... you missed out on those gains man... and the future gains those gains could have earned you, and the future gains the gains of those gains would have earned you, and so on.
     
     And since the market, on average, always goes up, it's just a bad bet to not be investing your cash.
     
     If I was in your situation, I would confidently put it all immediately into exactly the portfolio I have now, because otherwise I should sell the portfolio I have now. If you want to really lower your risk against say a deflationary economy, then you can throw a portion ~10% in bonds. It won't do much harm.
     
     But honestly, for someone in their 30s in the wealth accumulation phase of their life, you have the luxury to wait out any potential recession. The maths says throw it all into a low-cost well-spread full world stock-market ETF, and hold fast, it will be a bit of a wild ride at times but just don't panic, don't do anything rash, and it will be worth it.
     
     As you get older and closer to retirement (wealth maintenance period) then 30% bonds is a good number. But I'd start with 90%-100% in stocks and hold fast. Do your research if you need to be convinced on the numbers for this. Or read The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins (I thought the audiobook was great).
     
     
     Also can I ask you a question: what do you do and what region of the world do you live in? Sounds like the dream.
     
     

Ramit's book is well reviewed and on point. Another good one is Your Money, The Missing Manual by JD Roth. The BogleHeads Wiki and forums are also a great resource for honest and reasonable advise for no cost. After you're working and out of high interest rate debt, here's a summary their recommendations (and pretty much in order):

• Know why you want to make/save money (important but often skipped)
  
• Spend less than you make (advice varies: cut cable bill, quit drugs/drinking, better job/education ... this is hard)
  
• Save 3+ (or 6+) months of living expenses (rent, food, pet ER visits)
  
• Get employer match (you invest $500, employer matches with $500; go for the max, it's free money - so good it could go ahead of the emergency savings above according to some)
  
• Invest in Vanguard index Target Date Retirement or Index funds (indexes like SP 500, Total stock market, large-cap, mid-cap, small-cap, bonds) - aim for 10% of your income to be invested or saved.
  
• It's gets a little squishy from here to maximize certain benefits and risks (e.g., tax consequences depended on income and individual specific goals) but by this point you'll have quite a bit saved and be on track for a healthy retirement.
  
• Aim for 75-90% of your income to be available for as many years as you expect to live during retirement in order to maintain a similar lifestyle to when you stop work and you'll want substantial emergency savings and long term health provisions (e.g., extended stay in assisted living for you or yours).
  
  Vanguard Target Date Retirement funds are great: they use some standard rules of thumb (parallel to what you'll read in Roth and Sethi's books) on how to invest over time so they adjust automatically as you approach retirement. Still passive investing with minimal fees (~0.1% expense ratio on most). They are the invest and forget funds. Other companies have similar funds (sometimes called Life Cycle or similar) but Vanguard's have the lowest fees (especially cheap if you invest over $3,000 and agree to email notifications rather than the cost of mailing everything).

> I am fairly ignorant on the different options available to me as far as investing goes, but that's what investment companies are for, isn't it?

Absolutely. We have a financial advisor that keeps a close eye on our money, and he's more than earned his pay. But I think it important to educate yourself enough to develop a functional BS detector. Otherwise, you won't know what to expect in different market conditions and will have a tough time picking an advisor.

We got in with our guy nearly ten years ago because he maintained the value of his clients' portfolios in the dot-com crash while still delivering good returns during market upswings.

I'd recommend interviewing a couple of advisors before picking one. Don't be shy to ask how they get paid. Many of them get commissions based on selling particular financial products. Get up and leave as soon as you hear that. Others are limited to selling a particular set of products. That would also make me nervous. Part of the reason we picked our guy is that he takes a flat commission off the value of our portfolio (originally 1%/year, now around 0.75%) and can get us into all manner of financial products including options, commodities, etc. We primarily hold mutual funds and individual stocks, though.

> but if people who are making moves on Wall Street do what they have done recently, there is no guarantee that my retirement fund will have any value by the time I'm ready to draw on it. My dad has been investing in his retirement for decades, and in the last two years, it lost $50k in value.

There's no sure thing. You have to do something with your money and realize that holding cash has its own set of risks, particularly now that we have a madman with printing press in charge of our central bank.

FWIIW, our portfolio value dipped in 2008/2009, but we were fully recovered in value by mid 2009. We recognized the housing bubble for what it was and stayed out of that sector. My parents were blindly turning over their money to a manager who had them heavily invested in Fannie and Freddie. They lost a couple hundred large in the 2008 crash, and it's not coming back.

> Do you have any advice on where to start learning without having to spend every hour after work piddling with it?

Four of my favorites include One Up on Wall Street, Fail-Safe Investing, The Black Swan, and How an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes. The first book talks about picking individual stocks (gave me the confidence to load up on AAPL back when it was trading under $100/share), the second about structuring a portfolio for growth while still playing defense, the third about common fallacies and hubris, and the last about what drives an economy (particularly useful for recognizing bubbles).

Is this at all helpful?

The reason why the Fama-French 3 factor and Carhart 4 factor are so prevalent is because people generally agree on these factors. Without going into history too much, the number of factors have grown over time from CAPM (1 factor) to Fama French (3 factor), to Carhart (4 factor). There are even more, but at some point, it starts looking like a "factor zoo".

After the success of Fama-French, and quantitative investment firms that use the approach like DFA and AQR, almost every finance program teaches this type of approach. This has influenced a lot of finance students, who themselves started to look for new factors. Some of the new studies try to find further nuances in existing factors, while others go off all new tangents, a fun one that comes to mind is a paper that tries to create a factor out of moon cycles.

We have so many factors now that academics are writing meta-papers describing the problem of there being too many factors to choose from.

If you want a nice summary of some pretty widely accepted factors, I would recommend a very accessible book called Your Complete Guide to Factor-Based Investing

Pyramid scheme recruiters know who to target: anyone who's young, naive, or struggling with money. I know at this point that's pretty much an entire generation's worth of people in Vancouver, but don't underestimate the power of desperation.

Here's a quick cheat sheet to figure out if the new person you just met is a pyramid scheme/MLM recruiter:

• They may call themselves a life coach instead of a mentor. Or if they're really delusional, claim to be entrepreneurs/business owners and decline to be specific.
  
  
• They really believe in dressing for success, so regardless of situation, the most ambitious scammers are always perfectly groomed and wearing something more suitable for a night at a high class lounge. Men will be in flashy suits and wingtips, while women will be in cocktail dresses and heels. Of course, not all of them dress like this -- it can also range from smart casual to business casual. If you're a new immigrant to the country and a very nice, "rich-looking" white guy offered to share the secrets of wealth with you, are you going to turn him down?
  
  
• They often work in pairs -- dating/engaged/married couples. It projects a more trustworthy image to their target. They'll share their personal histories (where they're from, how they met each other, etc.)
  
  
• If you do go for coffee with them, they'll greet you with a hug (and you'll get another one at the end of the meeting before you leave.) I know it's weird to point out, but every pyramid scheme meeting I've ever spectated/eavesdropped on does this for some reason. A cheap method of building rapport, I suppose. It creeps me out because it just oozes fakeness.
  
  
• They'll ask if you've ever read any of Robert Kiyosaki's books, specifically Rich Dad, Poor Dad and The Business of the 21st Century. If not, they'll generously offer to lend you a copy. The Go-Giver and Pro-Sumer Power are also books they try to peddle, but definitely not as much as the first two. Basically any motivational/self-help/finance book or audio tape they suggest is a red flag.
  
  
• They'll never say the name of the scam company they work for in the first meeting. They realize the stigma attached to "Amway", "Primerica", "Herbalife", "World Financial Group", or "ACN". They want to hook you on first. It'll be much easier to convince you that all the bad things you hear or read about online about Amway are lies if you've chosen to drink the kool-aid on your own free will.
  
  
• They'll try to impress and talk about flying off to attend conferences in pseudo-exotic places. My cousin's an audio tech and he gets hired to work a shit ton of MLM events at hotels in Vancouver.
  
  But seriously, when in doubt, just use google.

I'm in a similar situation though my internship will last about 10 months and I plan on saving ~30k of it. I've already read this and started reading this and plan on reading this. I plan on adding to my reading list indefinately. I will have a decent amount of free time since I won't be in school for nearly a year, I'll only be working (a lot admittedly) but I know I want to actively invest as I've found the market very interesting. I've already been doing a good amount of research into the industry I'm going in and I think just from my job I'll get new perspective.

Could someone recommend a good simulation site/program where I can start practicing? Also if any other more active traders have any tips on how to get started that would be appreciated too.

I'm a self made millionaire but from all the hostility and drama I see here I would NEVER do an AMA.

I've quickly learned that most people don't have the resolve to live by basic principals that have gotten me to where I am now. So in a very general nutshell here it is from me for the umpteenth time...and for the few who say these are obvious, then I counter, why the fuck aren't you guys REALLY doing this...

1. Learn to live FAR below your means and DELAY gratification. I basically gave up most of my 20's working my ass of to raise the principal required for investing. And I REALLY MEAN WORKED MY ASS OFF.
   
   
2. SAVE at least 40% of your take home pay
   
   
3. LEARN to do the math and homework of investing and I mean DO IT yourself, no stock "tips" (which are 99.9999% bullshit). Don't know how? Educate yourself. A decent start is Phil Town's Rule #1 Investing and Peter Lynch's One up on Wall Street. Again, not the end all be all, but it's a start. Also, it's fucking amazon, be smart and buy those books USED. Sites like the Motley Fool can be helpful but I suggest read the articles and DON'T buy their products...lots of good stuff for FREE there. LEARN what an exchange trade fund and dividend reinvestment plans are.
   
   
4. DON'T choose to live like the Jones'...they are fucking broke.
   
   
5. ABSOLUTELY budget for adequate health insurance as one single catastrophic event could wipe out years of earnings quickly.
   
   
6. Learn to be on the POSITIVE side of compound interest. If you can't afford to pay for something outright in cash, then don't fucking buy it. Credit cards are for SUCKERS.
   
   
7. DO THE MATH if you want to buy a home. Honestly, sometimes renting is the better choice.
   
   I STILL to this day buy groceries with coupons, wear the SAME Timex watch I did when I was in high school, drive a car from the 1960s, and RENT a small but nice house with an incredible view, most of my close friends have no idea how much I'm worth and many complain about how "cheap" I am.
   
   I don't give a rats ass if you decide to believe me or not. The sun will rise tomorrow and I'll still never have to call anyone boss or punch another fucking clock in my life EVER. You follow the basic advice, you might stop living paycheck to paycheck.
   
   
   Don't be a dick. I just gave you free legit advice. Now you're on your own. I'm not your mommy.
   
   
   /retired in my 30's with liquid assets in 8 figures.

Is it worth the effort to invest in factors? The answer is "probaby yes" if your end goal is to increase your average returns over a 20-30 year time period and are willing to introduce a small amount of additional complexity. I highly recommend Berkin & Swedroe's "Your Complete Guide to Factor Investing" if you want to evaluate the evidence for a factor-based approach.

Based on your question, Ben Felix's paper "Factor Investing With ETFs" is where I would start if you haven't checked it out already. It provides a good, quick summary of the benefits of factor investing and a Couch Potato-style model portfolio with couple of added factor ETFs. The downside is that these funds are US-based, which means you have to convert to US dollars through your brokerage (they usually charge a 2% fee) or do a fancier maneuver called "Norbert's Gambit". I personally found it worthwhile to learn how to do Norbert's Gambit because once you do it once, you can do it as often as you'd like in the future.... and you'll save yourself lots in fees, too!


If you don't want to convert currencies, then Vanguard's Canadian-listed factor funds like VMO or VVL might work for you. Blackrock also has multifactor ETFs like XFC, XFS, and XFI that may work. Personally, I prefer US-listed ETFs like the ones listed in Ben's paper because they have a longer history and are cheaper to hold.

Interesting, I don't think I will ever be financially independent, but I have those habits and yes, they do provide some breathing room.

/u/herecomesthethunder

You might want to read these two books:


Get A Financial Life. It is written for people your age and people who do not like reading persoanl finance books. It will teach you the basics of the things people mentioned here, and how to manage your money so have some breathing room when adversity happens.

Your Money Or Your Life. The authors of this book were high powered financial professionals in New York who realized they didn't like their careers so much anymore. Being smart and experts with money they discovered that their high powered jobs came with an obligation of a more expensive lifestyle: living near an expensive city, suits, dry cleaning bills, transportation, etc. They figured out if they learned to live frugally they could be financially independent without being wealthy, choosing instead to spend their best waking hours pursuing other interests. The book is the original testament of the voluntary simplicity movement. That isn't for me, but I always valued this book as a "philosophy of money". It gets you to question and think about the place of money in your life. In your case, you want the freedom to not be afraid of losing your job.

Great, so then you're looking at the following:

Emergency Fund: let's round up to $2000
Retirement: $5500
New Car: $10000 (I'm guessing here)

Which leaves you with $6,500 to consider investing. That's what I'd focus on with your financial advisor. Keep in mind, you generally want to look at investing as a long term play (5 years+) so if you ever feel like you'd need to pull that money out, I'd keep it more liquid and maybe beef up your EF some more. If you're comfortable with not tapping into that money, you can look at crazier things like some of the cryptocurrency stuff floating around (higher risk) or real estate (lower risk). Generally a few good investing resources are Wall Street Survivor (they have a bunch of free online courses), Investopedia (awesome resource for learning about finance) and this book (The Index Card - https://www.amazon.com/Index-Card-Personal-Finance-Complicated/dp/0143130528/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1498149260&sr=8-1&keywords=the+index+card).

A good way to look at volume is like pressure. Higher volume = higher pressure. Imagine it like pressure in a pipe. Thus if there the price is increasing, on high volume, the momentum is strong, and it takes a lot of pressure to reverse that momentum - and vice versa (price decreasing on increasing volume, you'll often see the floor drop out).

Note that virtually all modern-day trading indicators are based off price and volume. Back in the day (pre-1950's), price and volume were the primary thing traders looked at (in the absence of the 100's of different trading indicators used today).

If you want to learn more about volume and technical analysis, here are one of the best books on the subject:
https://www.amazon.com/Technical-Analysis-Financial-Markets-Comprehensive/dp/0735200661/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1479917231&sr=8-1&keywords=technical+analysis


This is also an awesome book, talking about how a trader in ~1950's used pretty much only price and volume to know what to invest in, an enjoyable read too I'd say (I just noticed the kindle edition is only $1, you should definitely check this book out):
https://www.amazon.com/How-Made-000-Stock-Market/dp/1614271690/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1479917478&sr=8-1&keywords=how+i+made+2+million+dollars

From the sounds of it you have no idea what to do with the money, and have no existing savings or investment plans.

This is not intended as a criticism of you, as I reached my 40's myself with just about no plan.

However, what it means is that this £80,000 is like an immediate thing, and it should be only a component of your longterm savings and investment plans.

I.E. you need to sort out your longterm savings and investment plans first, and only then fit the £80,000 in the appropriate slot(s).

IMO you should put the £80,000 in the bank for the next 12 months. Figure o building a plan by the end of the tax year - be prepared, say, to put it all into action in March 2018.

Use www.bankaccountsavings.co.uk to maximise the interest on your savings for the next 11 or 12 months.

I think the first books you should read are Rich Dad, Poor Dad and Your Money or Your Life. IMO you and your gf should each read one of these books in the next fortnight or month, then swap and read the other. Some people get a lot out of these books, others not so much - read the criticism of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, too, but hopefully within the next 3 months or so you should be able to build an idea of your financial goals. Generally financial goals should support life goals, but it's ok to have financial goals that support open-ended life goals. Might be worth taking a look at Martin Bamford's Money Tree and Martin Lewis' Money Diet (I haven't read them, but one of the sub's mods put them in the sub's wiki, he's a financial advisor and I trust him) then dig into Tim Hale's Smarter Investing.

Read this sub everyday and ask questions about anything you don't understand.

On What to Read


Here are some suggestions on books and websites:


The Millionaire Next Door by Stanley and Danko - https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474


If You Can by William Bernstein - http://efficientfrontier.com/ef/0adhoc/2books.htm


Free version is here - https://www.dropbox.com/s/5tj8480ji58j00f/If%20You%20Can.pdf?dl=0


The Investor's Manifesto. Preparing for Prosperity, Armageddon, and Everything in Between by William Bernstein - https://www.amazon.com/Investors-Manifesto-Prosperity-Armageddon-Everything/dp/1118073762


The Bogleheads Guide to Investing - https://www.amazon.com/Bogleheads-Guide-Investing-Taylor-Larimore/dp/1118921283


The Coffeehouse Investor - https://www.amazon.com/Coffeehouse-Investor-Wealth-Ignore-Street/dp/0976585707


The Bogleheads' Guide to Retirement Planning - https://www.amazon.com/Bogleheads-Guide-Retirement-Planning/dp/0470455578


The Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio by William Bernstein - https://www.amazon.com/Four-Pillars-Investing-Building-Portfolio/dp/0071747052/


Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey - https://www.amazon.com/Total-Money-Makeover-Classic-Financial/dp/1595555277


Personal Finance for Dummies by Eric Tyson - https://www.amazon.com/Personal-Finance-Dummies-Eric-Tyson/dp/1118117859


Investing for Dummies by Eric Tyson - https://www.amazon.com/Investing-Dummies-Eric-Tyson/dp/1119320690/


The Millionaire Real Estate Investor per red-sfplus’s post (can confirm this is excellent) - https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Real-Estate-Investor/dp/0071446370/


For all the M.Ds on here and HNW individuals, you might want to check out https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/ and his blog – found it to be very useful.


https://www.irs.gov/ or your government’s tax page. If you’ve been reading, you know that millionaires know more than your average bear about the tax code.


https://www.reddit.com/r/TheRedPill/comments/7vohb3/money/


https://www.reddit.com/r/TheRedPill/comments/3hzcvn/financial_advice_from_a_financier/


https://www.artofmanliness.com/2017/09/22/4-money-tips-4-personal-finance-legends/


Personal Finance Flowchart from their wiki - https://i.imgur.com/lSoUQr2.png


Additional Lists of Books:


https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Books:_recommendations_and_reviews


https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/books-4/


Subreddits


https://www.reddit.com/r/investing/


https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/ - I would highly encourage you to spend a half hour browsing their wiki - https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/index and investing advice - https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/investing


https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/


https://www.reddit.com/r/SecurityAnalysis/


https://www.reddit.com/r/finance/


https://www.reddit.com/r/portfolios/


https://www.reddit.com/r/Bogleheads/


MRP References


https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/40whjy/finally_talked_to_my_wife_about_our_finances_it/


https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/67nxdu/finances_with_a_sahm/


https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/488pa0/60_dod_week_6_finances/ (original)


https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/6a6712/60_dod_week_6_finances/ (year 2)


https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/3xw015/how_to_prepare_for_a_talk_about_finances/


https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/30z704/taking_back_the_finances/


https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/2uzukg/married_redpill_finances_and_money/


https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/3637q5/some_thoughts_on_mrp_and_finances/


https://www.reddit.com/r/askMRP/comments/8dwaqt/best_practices_for_finances_within_marriage/


https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/588e5o/gain_control_of_the_treasury/


Final Thoughts


There are already a lot of high net worth individuals on these subs (if you don’t believe me, look at the OYS for the past few months). This should be a review for most folks. The key points stay the same – have a plan, get out of the hole you are in, have a budget, do the right moves for wealth accumulation. Lead your family in your finances. Own it.


What are YOU doing to own your finances? Give some examples below.

I was recommended this book since charting/technical analysis is one of the most trustworthy ways of determining what a stock is going to do next. Other than that, I just went out and bought a couple of "investing for beginners" kind of books.

A good brokerage to start with is an app called Robinhood, which is free of brokerage fees (the fees most places charge for buying and selling stock), and they offer a couple of free day trades per week, if that's something you want to do. Very intuitive app that does a lot of what you want it to. Other than that, Google is your best friend, but invest off your own research and start with safe investments like ETFs while you read up.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely understand you are young and need guidance. I was 17 when I started investing as well.

I can give stock recommendations all day but I can give you two really good pieces of advice right now.

1: Read. Read everything you can. The Intelligent Investor by Ben Graham is the bible of value investing. Warren Buffet himself said that this was the best book on value investing he's read. Read this book. Also, read Rich Dad Poor Dad This was the single most influential piece of literature I've ever read.

2: Be extremely careful who you take advice from. Just because people are older doesn't make them smarter. You want to find people who have exactly what you want for yourself. These people are worth taking advice from. The average person is an idiot, and they all think they know the right way, and yet they all are slaving away at jobs they hate that "don't pay them enough". This could even be your parents or friends. It may be hard to reject their advice. They may not even realize that they don't know what they are doing. Again, you want to learn from people who have exactly what you want.

Goodluck!

If you want to learn more of the stress free trading, look for this book, I always recommend it to anyone. It's a fun, easy and relax way of trading. The guy who wrote that book is a dancer who made millions on stock market while doing the thing he love the most.

Props for mentioning the Permanent Portfolio, but a) where's the cash?, and b) not enough gold.

There are a lot of very smart investors out there who think that gold still has a long way to go. I can wholeheartedly recommend the Permanent Portfolio to anyone and present it as a very stable portfolio, but on some level I expect the 25% gold to make the difference between rags and riches.

I started with this book and it's helped a lot--> https://www.amazon.com/Index-Card-Personal-Finance-Complicated/dp/0143130528/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=personal+finance+index+card&qid=1565197060&s=gateway&sr=8-1

It simplifies everything for you. Made me realize I don't need an FA, but if you do need one there are resources in the book to help make sure you choose someone who will actually help you and act in your financial interests. Not all financial advisers do that, nor are they required to.

Also I saw one of your other comments about the house issue -- if you're not making much right now not sure how you would expect to pay off a house that quickly unless I'm misunderstanding your question. Also for side income, a house isn't really a sure thing except in certain circumstances. A huge portion of your investments would become tied up in one asset that could flood, get damaged in a hurricane, etc. Nothing wrong with buying a house for yourselves to live in if that's what you want and can afford it, but sounds like you're getting way ahead of yourself with the decision to buy a house as an investment.

I 100% agree with all of the above recommendations for Bogleheads but I'd also recommend The Simple Path to Wealth by J.L. Collins.

It boils down to low cost index funds. Invest there and watch your money grow. Good luck.

> What are the other allocations aside from CCP that are often recommended?

For passive investing, the CPM Model ETF Portfolios. For something more active, probably factor investing. Larry Swedroe has written a great book on this, which you can find on the Library Genesis. The main problem with this approach though is a lack of Canadian ETFs which capture the factor premiums effectively, so you have to do your own research here.

> Also here is WS allocations. What do you think of the assets below? Should I copy it at Questrade?

Seems solid to me. Captures all the main asset classes - US, Canada, International Developed, Emerging Markets, and Fixed-Income. Don't see the point of 5.5% in cash though. Also, this will be harder to rebalance on Questrade (I assume WS does the rebalancing for you?) as you pay a fee of at least $4.95 for selling ETFs. To help with that, consider going with 5 ETFs - one for each of Canadian aggregate bond index, Canadian equities, US equities, International developed equities, and emerging market equities.

Another option would be to use WS Trade, as they charge no commission for buying/selling stocks/ETFs. But if you want to hold US-listed ETFs, they do charge a currency exchange fee, which you can avoid on Questrade using something called "Norbert's Gambit". Holding US-listed ETFs is best in an RRSP though (which WS Trade currently does not let you open), as you avoid the 15% withholding tax on dividends imposed by the US government. But I still think WS Trade is the best option for TFSA accounts.

It is on the reading list but I highly recommend I Will Teach You To Be Rich.

It is geared for someone in their 20s although it can be applied at any age. It's broken down into six weeks where he goes over your credit and banking accounts and then guides you into starting an investment account and setting up a budget. An updated edition of this book is coming out in May but the advice in the book is still sound and relevant.

Edit: Found one more book on that list that seems perfect. Get a Financial Life: Personal Finance in Your Twenties and Thirties.

I also really liked Suze Orman's The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous & Broke but it came out in 2005 so some of the content is outdated. This is one of the few books I have seen that really targets the issues young people face with money.

The best written works I've seen on how to invest are the Phil Town books.

Rule #1: The Simple Strategy for Successful Investing in Only 15 Minutes a Week!

Payback Time: Making Big Money Is the Best Revenge!

His first book covers more swing trading. His second book covers a longer buy and hold style strategy which I currently use. Both books have excellent information on evaluating a company, figuring out a baseline value for the stock, and explaining how to trade the stock within a margin of safety.

I am not sure if the second book makes less sense of you don't read the first, but the second book does include everything you should need to evaluate a company from a "mainstreet" business perspective as well as the financials from a wall street numbers perspective.

Edit: Here is an example of me doing this for Google stock back in the day: http://www.investorgeeks.com/articles/2010/05/21/payback-time-analysis-for-goog/

> the most important thing to manage investment is to manage risks.

It sounds like you would really enjoy, and possibly learn from Howard Mark's book of the same name: The Most Important Thing (Illuminated). It's all about risk identification and management from a risk-averse, contrarian standpoint. Given your attitude towards risk, it seems like this would be a great read for you. I just finished it myself. Wasn't able to put it down. :)

Ric Edelman's "The Truth About Money" is a great introduction.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Truth-About-Money-Edition/dp/0062006487

Some of his other books offer not-so-good advice so stick with just this one. :-)

The TL;DR of investing:

Stocks: You buy part of a company which has been sold to the public.

Bonds: You lend money to someone and they pay you interest

Mutual Funds: Someone else buys a mix of the above so you don't have to deal with the complexities of doing so, bundles them together, and sells you parts of the bundle like a stock.

Brokerage: A company where you open an account to buy and sell the above. They take your money and let you buy stocks/bonds with it. For a fee, of course. :-)

Wow some people here taking profits with an all time high breakout after nice bullish consolidation + Segwit.

Immediately go to Amazon and buy this book or you won't be a millionaire on this crypto bull market.

https://www.amazon.com/Reminiscences-Stock-Operator-Commentary-Livermore/dp/0470481595/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1501913482&sr=1-3&keywords=Reminiscences+of+a+Stock+Operator

Yes, buy the hard cover cheapo's.

It's a bit technical, but I think A Random Walk Down Wall Street is one of the better books about investing that's ever been written. It focuses more on the theory and historic patterns of investing, but it does have solid personal finance advice as well. It's one of those books that teaches you more than you really need to know but makes you quite a bit wiser for the experience.

There's also a "Bogleheads Guide to Retirement Planning" that may be more practical if that's what you're looking for.

I've been sponsoring a child in (Nepal, India, Peru, Equador as each child grew up at some point) at Save The Children. You learn a lot from the children's/site leader's letters about different cultures and makes it less of a faceless exercise.

I read Andrew Tobias's book, Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need's chapter on Charity in college and it made me decide right then to make charity a part of my investment plan. I have to say it is something I am proud to have done for every 30 years through good times and bad.

try [this one] (http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/1118073762)

The cover and title are a little over the top but once you get inside its full of good, solid, fairly conservative advice. Lots of really good explanations of investment principles that you don't need to be a math wiz to understand. (although, if you are a numbers person he has enough depth in the footnotes to keep it interesting)

I do not deal locally, so, unfortunately, I cannot recommend any institutions, however, it would be a good idea to understand the market and your options beforehand. Reading Investing for Dummies , Investopedia and subscribing to r/stocks & r/investing will be a good start. You do not need to be an expert, but having a solid base of understanding to get started will allow you to have a better idea of where you want to put your money.

Looking for this one too. For non-aus one, am planning to get this: The Simple Path to Wealth: Your road map to financial independence and a rich, free life https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01H97OQY2/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_CmjyCbV4KKJJS

Wow this is a great list - thanks everybody
I want to recommend a book that absolutely changed my life.
'The only investment guide you'll ever need' by Andrew Tobias. I knew little about finance, and this book, which is maybe a hundred fifty pages long, covers everything you need to know. I read it fifteen years ago in an afternoon and last year I retired early (at 50) as a result of following what he recommended. He writes for the layman and updates it regularly. Wish I'd read it at 18. I know you'll probably ignore this post because finance is boring, but do yourself a favour, check out the reviews on amazon and spend a couple of hours reading it.
http://www.amazon.com/Only-Investment-Guide-Youll-Ever/dp/0156029634

You should start by reading The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing and A Random Walk Down Wall Street. Both are short reads and very useful for beginning investors.

These books, and most of the people at /r/personalfinance, will tell you that your best bet is to buy index funds. They will also point you to Vanguard, who generally has the lowest fees around. There are a couple of strategies that get advertised a lot:

1. Buy a target date fund. You just choose when you want to retire and invest in that fund. It has a balance of domestic and foreign stocks and bonds that shift towards more bonds as your retirement date approaches. Example: Vanguard Target Retirement 2045 Fund (VTIVX)
   
   
2. Buy a "3 fund portfolio". This is generally a broad domestic stock index, a broad international stock index, and a broad bond index. This could be VTSMX, VGTSX, and VBMFX.
   
   In terms of your money, you should start by maxing your IRA and 401(k) contributions each year, and then invest however much more into a standard "taxable" account. Note that you generally want your bond holdings in a tax-sheltered IRA or 401(k). Also note that there are other companies that offer low-fee index funds as well.

The wiki is a great place to start, especially the PRIME DIRECTIVE.



This book is a nice short read that explains things very well.

Honestly one of the best books I've read for beginners is investing for dummies. It's very good at explaining risks associated with different types of investments. You don't even have to read the whole thing just what you need to get started.

Investing For Dummies https://www.amazon.com/dp/1119320690/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_D4rVCbK6RTN7F

> You are unlikely to happen upon an investment strategy by sheer luck as effective as those your advisor would use EVERY DAY.

That's why professionals beat the odds. Oh, that's right. They don't. They frequently lose to dart boards. That's because no one (except Buffett, apparently) can actually beat the market.

What on earth could a financial advisor do with $200K that she couldn't do herself for cheaper? If she sticks it into the S&P500 and leaves it, she's going to beat 95% of the professionals out there. What is an advisor going to do for her, other than charge fees to do what she can do at Vanguard.com for free?

Edit: OP, here are some books to read: 1, 2

Best advice I have for small business in general: Dave Ramsey's EntreLeadership

His related material is also excellent.

This is a pretty decent, easy to understand primer in understanding the ways to invest:

https://www.amazon.com/Investing-Dummies-Eric-Tyson/dp/1119320690/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3A8SVKX0AXTP9&keywords=investing+for+dummies+2019&qid=1573331955&sprefix=investing+for+du%2Caps%2C173&sr=8-3

​

Of course, do additional research based on the other links shared by others. You can't take all your advice from one source.

I read an interesting snippet the other day which covered how people are generally more risk seeking when trying to prevent losses, and more risk averse when trying to make money.

In the example, a study group was given two options. Option A, they would lose $3,000. Option B, they were given an 80% chance to lose $4,000 and a 20% chance to lose nothing. Even though there is an 80% chance of losing more money, people still will take the risk in order to stop losses, even though 80% of the time they will lose more money.

On the other hand, if Option A is that you will be given $3,000, and option B is that you have an 80% chance of being given $4,000 but a 20% chance of receiving nothing, then most people will opt for Option A and just receive the $3,000, even though now you have an 80% chance of receiving the $4,000.

It came from a great book I am about halfway through "The Neatest Little Guide to Stock Market Investing"

the simple path to wealth by JL Collins

I suggest reading some personal finance blogs before getting books. information in bite size pieces, so you won’t feel overwhelmed, you can get a general consensus from many bloggers, and you will realize that investing and planning for retirement isn’t super complicated.

And podcasts! I am really into Suze orman’s new podcast “women and money”

Please do your research as there are many experts who make various claims.

We are just amateurs here on /r/FI and are not professional investment advisors in any sense.

Topics to explore are index funds versus actively managed funds, expense ratios and its effects on performance. I recommend this book, The Truth About Money, by Ric Edelman

https://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Money-4th/dp/0062006487

Don't daytrade or even trade at all or you will probably lose it all quickly.

Instead just put it all in Jan 2018 $16 AMD calls and wait.

Then just sit back and go read the book, How I made 2 million in the stock market, while you watch that 50k go to 100k and then 150k.

You get rich by making a few correct, longterm but concentrated bets and I just gave you your first and best.

Please do not pay for anything. All public information is available to you to trade successfully. Before going through any course online, I recommend this book.

https://www.amazon.com/Reminiscences-Stock-Operator-Commentary-Livermore/dp/0470481595

I also wrote a few bitcoin articles on trading on my blog.

https://www.amazon.com/Charting-Technical-Analysis-Fred-Mcallen/dp/1456468693

Read this book. Go to tradingview.com for free charting. Learn how to trade options (calls and puts). Invest all $1000 into calls on a stock you think will raise OR all $1000 into puts on a stock you think will fall. PROFIT $$$$$

I really like the podcast Death Sex and Money. They have a lot of resources online about beginning to deal with a lot of these issues. For example they just had a two part episode about student loan debt and the different ways people are dealing with them. Here's a link to their back catalog.

I listen to a load of economic and financial podcasts because I find it interesting. There's one book that's been recommended across multiple different ones. Here's an NPR link about the basis for it. It pretty much is that all the best financial advice can fit onto an index card as is pretty simple. Here's the amazon link to the book but you could also probably find it for sale cheap at a used book store or get it from your library.

I liked that book, but it is somekind similar to TII. What I remembred about that book is that a stock tend to be undervalued if the bonds pays the same rate, since the stock tend to have fewer investors who would invest assuming risk, they will prefer the bonds, but they overlook the stock potential growth. Off course, this is waaay oversimplified. And our market have P/E throught the roof now. Too much volability and speculation IMO.

I'm keeping my IPCA+ till the end of election and wait to make some good investment then. Maybe I'll hold some WEG stocks, since they are pioneering bus electrification in the country, they may get a spurge in the near future.

edit:grammar

Meus dois centavos,
Sucesso pra ti!

I have been trading on and off for over 15 years. I found this book in a used book store 2003 and it completely changed the way I traded: How I Made 2 Million Dollars in The Stock Market

I don't tell many people that I trade, but when I do I'm generally asked, "isn't it just gambling?". Well, no, no it is not. If you stick religiously to a stop-loss rule, you will always have enough capital to 'fight another day'.

The concept for successful technical trading is very simple. You are trying to identify perfect setups, which will allow you to buy a stock just as it is starting to rocket upwards. If the setup fails, try to limit your loss as much as possible by selling the minute the stock falls x% below your purchase price.

There are also a gazillion other stock trading "bibles" out there. I would suggest reading as much as possible. However, nothing will force you to learn faster than having money in the market.

As others have noted, with the amount that you are starting with, you will need to move the money to Robinhood to avoid fees.

Good luck.

There are roughly 5 components in the practical CAPM model: (i) market risk (ii) value (iii) size (iii) momentum (iv) profitability.

The market risk beta was developed in the 60's and captured around 60% of volatility.

Adding the value beta and size beta - developed by French and Fama - brought the tally up to 90%.

The momentum beta then bumped up volatility capture to 95%.

So... if you have a single factor CAPM - the traditional market risk measure - you are still leaving around 40% of volatility unexplained.

In short: Add factors! Even if (European) CAPM traditionalists frown upon this.

Edit: This is a great book on the topic, and covers all recent academic publications!

It is basically a valid approach but there are a lot of details you have to get precisely right. And you will have significant periods of underperformance.

The book "complete guide to factor based investing" has a good discussion of the magic formula and its limits.

https://www.amazon.com/Your-Complete-Guide-Factor-Based-Investing/dp/0692783652

Neatest Little Guide to Stock Market Investing

I read a lot of books on investing, and trading. This was by far the shortest and most insightful. It's primarily focused on stocks but it will give you a really good foundation on some basic principles of buying and selling investment products.

I would also suggest:

http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/1118073762

Word-for-word the same advice, but as an added bonus goes into some basic math and history to back it up!

The top one without a doubt is:

https://www.amazon.com/Reminiscences-Stock-Operator-Commentary-Livermore/dp/0470481595

You'll be happy you read this one.

Try Fail-Safe Investing by Harry Browne, gives you all the main parts of a safe portfolio. Where to stick your money and most of it will be safe in any economic situation.

I would definitely read Howard Marks.

Might be easiest in book form. Amazon.

Here are two great books to start with:

Personal MBA - https://www.amazon.com/Personal-MBA-Master-Art-Business/dp/1591845572?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0

Entreleadership - https://www.amazon.com/EntreLeadership-Practical-Business-Wisdom-Trenches/dp/1451617852/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466870653&sr=1-1&keywords=entreleadership+dave+ramsey

I had a lot less money. I read two finance books: I Will Teach You To Be Rich and Your Money: The Missing Manual. Both are fantastic. They definitely helped me out.

I read this book to help with my market expectations.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01H97OQY2/
My conclusion is that Betterment is an investing tool to help me stay on my simple path.

I apologize if you had indicated your gender and I missed it. Otherwise I am old school (got this from my 60 year old female freshman English teacher way back in the day) and unknown genders use the masculine form.

As far as reading materials:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01H97OQY2/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1479088087&sr=8-1

I haven't read this book. I've read everything on his blog, and it's my understanding that the book is a reorganization of the key parts of the blog. I wanted to read the book before recommending but it's been checked out of my library since they got it (and the author is so serious about financial independence that his recommendation was to get it from the library instead of buying!). It is available on the kindle.

Most of the info in the book is probably included for free in this series of blog posts.

http://jlcollinsnh.com/stock-series/

Personal Finance for Dummies

https://www.amazon.com/Personal-Finance-Dummies-Eric-Tyson/dp/1119517893/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?keywords=personal+finance+for+dummies&qid=1568165153&s=gateway&sprefix=personal+finance&sr=8-3

Investing for Dummies

https://www.amazon.com/Investing-Dummies-Eric-Tyson/dp/1119320690/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?keywords=investing+for+dummies&qid=1568165219&s=gateway&sr=8-3

Same author. I read the older version of Investing for Dummies by the same author something like 15+ years ago. I did not read the personal finance one, but the investing book will put a lot of things into perspective for you. It really would be great if these were studied in highschool and\or college. Always get the latest version. They update it for current tax law. The general ideas are always the same.

Pay down debt or avoid incurring it. No investment is 100% except paying off debt. Don't buy more than you can afford. Diverse mutual funds are good. Pre-tax 401k is good.

Get a Financial Life is my favorite personal finance for young adults.

Bogleheads is the place to go for investing. Very beginner friendly. The videos are super cheesy but very accurate and unbiased.

I agree with this. Keep your costs down and follow a simple plan - Canadian Couch Potato is good, also these books are helpful references for investors making their own portfolio: A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton G Malkiel and Rob Carrick's Guide to What's Good, Bad and Downright Awful in Canadian Investments Today. If you don't want to bother learning even the basics, or have a small amount of money to invest, consider a robo-advisor.

>The rich pocket the money

Here's a book for them

I don’t see any replies to your question about investing in bonds. It’s not a simple answer. I would stick to a high yielding savings account or a CD if your goal is to leave the money sitting for 0-5 years.

This might sound silly, but this book is simple to read and keeps you engaged. If you have the financial means to invest, this is a great starting point to get your bearings:

https://www.amazon.com/Investing-Dummies-Eric-Tyson/dp/1119320690

Also, get a copy of Rich Dad Poor Dad (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rich-Dad-Poor-Robert-Kiyosaki/dp/1612680003/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1409136346&sr=8-1&keywords=rich+dad+poor+dad) - I wish I'd read this when I was younger, might give you a new perspective...

I would also add Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki, yes, it's aimed at an American readership but the principals are still the same.

It doesn't teach you to pick stocks or anything specific like that, but for me it was a real eye opener and educated me about having your money work for you, rather than the other way round.

that was the book i started with. I read that and Stock Market 101. The second book I read was Charting. Now I'm reading The Intelligent investor and a couple Day Trading books

Seconded. Rule #1 has some good suggestions as to how to come up with valuation, plus technical indicators on whether to buy now or wait.

The Investors Manifesto was referred to me by my college PFIN professor. I was able to read it cover to cover, in plain English, and it definitely helped me understand the basics of investing.

Let him help himself.

So I guess we're talking about this book?
http://www.amazon.com/EntreLeadership-Practical-Business-Wisdom-Trenches/dp/1451617852
It's hard to say. Is this an ongoing theme throughout the book? My guess is yes, since the author, Dave Ramsey, works for Fox and his Wiki page says: "His books and broadcasts often feature a Christian perspective that reflects Ramsey's religious beliefs."

See if there are any community colleges near your offering personal finance courses! And my mom (a former accountant/insurance agency employee) recommends this book which she actually just ordered for me too!

Kinda surprised at no Enterleadership by Dave Ramsey.

Practical advice on how to grow your business, treat people, and manage money.

• The Most Important Thing - Howard Marks
  
• Fooled by Randomness - Nassim Taleb

Fail-Safe Investing by Harry Browne. Quite possibly the best $11 you'll spend.

The strategy he mentions isn't sexy, but it works. My year-to-date return is 12%; not much, but I'll take it over the S&P 500's -9% over the same period.

The suggestions here aren’t very specific or helpful are they?

Start with the “for Dummies” series of books. Specifically stock investing:

https://www.amazon.com/Stock-Investing-Dummies-Paul-Mladjenovic/dp/1119239281/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1510966630&sr=8-3&keywords=investing+for+dummies+2017

I have no idea why that link is so long.

> OP needs to seek out a trained financial adviser.

Don't. Financial advisers are mostly just salesmen, and most sell shitty products with high fees. It's impossible to navigate which ones are good and which ones aren't unless you know finance yourself, in which case, you will no longer need a financial adviser and can invest yourself for the lowest fees (use Vanguard for the lowest fees).

It's really not all that complicated to invest if you play the game of diversification and just try to get the average market return. Trying to beat the market is another game (a game which we who are interested in bitcoin are playing) and takes another level of sophistication.

Just read these two books and you'll know all you need to know to invest your own money well for the lowest fees. That is if you're playing the simple diversify-and-get-average-market-return game.

The Investor's Manifesto: Preparing for Prosperity, Armageddon, and Everything in Between

A Random Walk down Wall Street: The Time-tested Strategy for Successful Investing

the only investment guide you'll need is one that's floated around (have a copy but haven't gotten around to reading it)

warren buffet's annual letter probably wouldn't hurt either

Hace 2 dias nomás me bajé y empecé a leer un libro de intro al charting y al TA. Bajé y ojeé otros, pero hasta ahora éste me resultó el más claro.

El tema de acciones, bonos, forex y demás me gusta. Pero por alguna razón el tema crypto me atrae aún más.

Ahora me pregunto seriamente si no me conviene mandar programación a la mierda, porque vengo sufriendo desde hace rato como un condenado para dar siquiera con entrevistas para puestos de trainee/jr... que por supuesto después terminan en la nada.

La verdad me gustaría dedicarme más de lleno a esto y ganar plata en serio. :)

(perdón por los edits)

I paid the fee and took the insurance class. It was worth the fee to get the class, even though I never sold a nickel of insurance and walked away from them soon after. Their products are expensive and overpriced. I basically decided that I couldn't sell something I wouldn't buy. They had some really crappy biweekly mortgages too.

Read this: http://www.amazon.com/Only-Investment-Guide-Youll-Ever/dp/0156029634 It's not the be-all end-all (and the author is somewhat embarrassed about the title, but his publisher came up with it), but it is a good start. Also read the Millionaire Next Door.

Then go to a low cost broker (tiaa cref, vanguard, schwab), and start a Roth IRA, throw some money into a 401K. If you are married get some term life insurance. Stay out of debt, and save up some money to buy cars with cash and a down payment on a house.

> but I've never ever found a good guide who can really tell me how this all works

I actually would have to recommend Investing For Dummies. Seriously. It's got all the information that someone with little-to-no background would need.

It's a misleading title: http://www.amazon.com/Only-Investment-Guide-Youll-Ever/dp/0156029634/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266369902&sr=8-1

However, it covers a lot of topics, is only $10, and is easy reading.

Generally speaking you'll either want a target date fund (which will have a higher expense ratio, but is "set it and forget it" kind of thing), or dump into something like VTSAX (or whatever equivalent you have access to). You can opt to do other portfolio strategies, but those are the two most commonly used for general suggestions. Many will feel that VTSAX is investing in only one stock, which is inaccurate as VTSAX invests in the broad market.

Also, if you have some time go and read through JLCollin's stock series (note - it's currently down for some reason, looks like their web host is having issues). Or read the simple path to wealth.

TL:DR - if you want 100% stocks, throw it in VTSAX and forget about it. Over the past 10 years VTSAX has returned 12%, with the worst 3 year period being -8% and best 3 years being 33%.

The Investor's Manifesto by William Bernstein

http://www.amazon.com/Reminiscences-Stock-Operator-Commentary-Livermore/dp/0470481595/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394302876&sr=8-1&keywords=stories+of+a+stock+operator

A random walk down Wall Street

https://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Money-4th-ebook/dp/B004EBT7I2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1495183064&sr=8-1&keywords=The+truth+about+money

https://www.amazon.com/Intelligent-Investor-Definitive-Investing-Essentials/dp/0060555661/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1495183176&sr=8-1&keywords=the+intelligent+investor

https://www.amazon.com/Fail-Safe-Investing-Lifelong-Financial-Security/dp/031226321X/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

Read this http://www.ccsales.com/the_richest_man_in_babylon.pdf

Buy this https://www.amazon.com/Investing-Dummies-Eric-Tyson/dp/1119320690/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1549764245&sr=8-3&keywords=investing+for+dummies+2018

And this https://www.amazon.com/Personal-Finance-Your-20s-Dummies-ebook/dp/B0773YYRTB/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1549764306&sr=8-2&keywords=financial+planning+for+dummies+2018

https://www.amazon.com/Your-Complete-Guide-Factor-Based-Investing/dp/0692783652/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486570140&sr=8-1&keywords=complete+guide+to+factor+based+investing

Stock Investing for Dummies.

https://www.amazon.com/Stock-Investing-Dummies-Paul-Mladjenovic/dp/1119239281/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1497379384&sr=8-1&keywords=stock+investing+for+dummies

https://www.amazon.com/Investing-Dummies-Lifestyle-Eric-Tyson/dp/1119320690/

Rule #1?

Check out Get a Financial Life by Beth Kobliner if you are willing to read a detailed financial schema. Check out the You Need A Budget (YNAB) app for habit building, info, and convenience.

Harry Browne's must read book on investing.

http://www.amazon.com/Charting-Technical-Analysis-Fred-Mcallen/dp/1456468693/ref=pd_sim_14_1?ie=UTF8&dpID=413yX1E7rvL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR107%2C160_&refRID=0QWDYQZ8CB2FYA9V4KSX

Dave Ramsey's EntreLeadership sets out to do just that - provide experience based advice for new business owners.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad.

Alternatively, one could just read https://www.amazon.com/Index-Card-Personal-Finance-Complicated/dp/0143130528 , and avoid Dave's notoriously bad investment advice (and hopefully his Reddit cult as well!).

Get A Financial LIfe. A personal finance book for people who don't like reading about money and who are just starting out in the world.

In general you should establish an emergency fund before you move onto other financial projects. Ideally, you should be able to live off of your emergency fund for 3 months should you lose your job or otherwise be unable to work.