Reddit mentions of A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing (Twelfth Edition)

Not saving any of my disposable income - if I invested even 10% of what I earned in my 20's I'd own a house now that I'm in my 30's, but instead I'm just now trying to catch up with that train.

EDIT: For those interested in learning to invest, I'll share some resources below. As for how I invest - I have 60% in high-interest 5-year CD account (about 3.1% APY) and the rest in mutual funds (VMVFX and VTMFX to be exact). I am putting 10% of my pre-tax income into my employer's 401(k) (they match some of contributions) and am contributing maximum amount possible to my IRA. Finally I keep about 5% of the cash in a savings account which provides a relatively low interest rate of 2% (but I can access that money at any time).

What I'm excited about: moving my investments to ESG (responsible environmental, social, and governance) funds. These funds carefully screen companies for negative impacts in that area - for example, tobacco and alcohol companies would be excluded, as would oil companies, and fashion retailers that use unsustainable labor practices. One such ESG fund is run by Vanguard - VEIGX.

Tips for saving: learn about concept of paying yourself first - that means automatic deductions into a savings account that you can't easily touch that happen after each of your paycheck. This has been the key to saving - automating it so that it's not something I have to think about - like a mortgage or bill payment - makes sure I don't spend the money meant to be saved. Do some budgeting to figure out where your money goes - there's lots of tools online, like Mint, that allow you to easily break down spending by categories and even set a budget. Estimate your living expenses (rent, food, bills, transportation) and prioritize saving for a 6 months worth of living in case of a job loss or accident. Learn about lifestyle creep and always live below your means - buy used not new, avoid cheaply made low quality products, think twice whether you really need the thing you're buying, can you get it used, can you borrow it? How much is the thing you're buying a liability in terms of maintenance, insurance, etc? Prioritize spending on yourself (experiences, learning, self-development) rather than on things.

Relevant reading:

• FIRE calculator: https://engaging-data.com/fire-calculator/ (also see /r/financialindependence)
  
• Three-fund portfolio: https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Three-fund_portfolio
  
• Renting vs buying: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/buy-rent-calculator.html
  
• Boglehead's Guide to Investing: https://www.amazon.com/Bogleheads-Guide-Investing-Taylor-Larimore/dp/0470067365
  
• A Random Walk Down Wallstreet: https://www.amazon.com/Random-Walk-Down-Wall-Street/dp/1324002182

You could start with A Random Walk Down Wall Street.

Hi,
I love books and here are some:
1- A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing
2- The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns
3- MONEY Master the Game: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom


Good luck

Bogle-heads is a fantastic source of financial information

Vanguard is my go-to investment company.

A Random Walk Down Wall Street

The Little Book of Common Sense Investing

I just started reading A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkel (latest edition is 2019), and it's pretty good so far. I've also seen several recommendations for John Bogle's The Little Book of Common Sense Investing, though I haven't read it yet.

There are also free courses on Coursera to get your feet wet (e.g. Robert Shiller's Financial Markets class, Yale Unv). These aren't always designed for your everyday retirement investor, but Shiller's course is still really informative.

You should check out A Random Walk Down Wallstreet

As I said in my other reply, if it were a profitable strategy, then there would be actively managed funds that took advantage of it and consistently beat the market. The transaction costs should be small for a mutual fund manager compared to the average investor. Even if it was a small profit, the fund would trade in large volumes such that a very small percentage becomes a large and worthwhile profit. Just look at high-frequency trading to see systems that exploit very small arbitrage opportunities to turn a profit.

There's lots of strategies that you could back-test against historical market data that look like winners. But just because you found a seemingly profitable pattern in the past (i.e. 5 down/up days in a row) doesn't mean that it will be true for future markets.

Not the technical junk. "Cups, bases" . . . you can ignore all of that. This is old school "chartistry", drawing lines on stock price charts, trying to find patterns.

When you look at IBD's "CAN slim" methodology . https://www.investors.com/ibd-university/can-slim/

it's basically a momentum investing style, and momentum investing generally has been successful for the last decade or more. IBD hasn't been any more successful than any other momentum investor, but you definitely could take note, there are a bunch of momentum investing funds available a ETFs, including one based on IBD's picks, ticker symbol is FFTY. Its a MUCH better idea than trying to pore over stock tables and calculate this stuff.

Momentum investing is really something you want to have someone doing algorithmically, rather than try to do it yourself, it involves a lot of recalculating, trading and portfolio rebalancing, which is both expensive and time consuming for an individual picking stocks.

And again, do yourself a favor: if you're new to investing, read

"A Random Walk Down Wall Street" -- now in its 12th edition, written by my old econ professor, Burt Malkiel. Its a disciplined look at all the things that provably _don't_ work. Reading charts is one of them. Market timing is another . . .

Or see his talk at Google "The Elements of Investing" on Youtube . . . its where someone new to investing should start.

Read up before taking our advice.