Author Topic: educating myself on investing?  (Read 6111 times)

The Money Monk

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educating myself on investing?
« on: February 20, 2013, 09:33:07 AM »
Rather than ask a myriad of specific investing questions, I would like to know what you guys recommend for educating ones self on investing.

I know just enough to get me in trouble probably.

My goal is to have a highly diversified portfolio that is geared towards wealth building for early retirement in 10 to 15 years.

What books, websites, videos, etc can you all recommend to educate myself?

I am not a complete novice, i'm at the point where I am more interested in practical stuff like valuating individual dividend stocks and things like that than I am about broad investment strategies


any advice is appreciated, thanks. 

unplugged

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Re: educating myself on investing?
« Reply #1 on: February 20, 2013, 09:40:25 AM »
Thank you for this post. I need the baby steps myself.

KingCoin

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Re: educating myself on investing?
« Reply #2 on: February 20, 2013, 10:03:39 AM »
I am more interested in practical stuff like valuating individual dividend stocks and things like that than I am about broad investment strategies

You could start with something like Fundamental Analysis for Dummies by Krantz. Should be more useful than say Ben Graham for a beginner.

I'll add the caveat that doing proper fundamental analysis is difficult, enormously time consuming, and unlikely to give you any edge over the professionals who study specific stocks/sectors for a living. However, if you insist on buying individual stocks, it's probably worth at least getting fluent in the jargon so you can read analyst reports and company filings intelligently.

The Money Monk

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Re: educating myself on investing?
« Reply #3 on: February 20, 2013, 10:44:44 AM »


You could start with something like Fundamental Analysis for Dummies by Krantz. Should be more useful than say Ben Graham for a beginner.

I'll add the caveat that doing proper fundamental analysis is difficult, enormously time consuming, and unlikely to give you any edge over the professionals who study specific stocks/sectors for a living. However, if you insist on buying individual stocks, it's probably worth at least getting fluent in the jargon so you can read analyst reports and company filings intelligently.

Thanks for the info. The only individual stock valuation I plan on doing would be for the purposes of long term dividend investing, not 'trading' per se.

I have been following the blog Dividend mantra for a while and like what he has been able to accomplish and I like the research he puts into deciding if a particular dividend stock is attractively valued for long term ownership.

He is 100% in US dividend stocks at the moment, and I plan on being much more diversified than that. but it is definitely a subject I want to learn more about. Thanks again.

gecko10x

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Re: educating myself on investing?
« Reply #4 on: February 20, 2013, 11:12:40 AM »
Check out David Van Knapp and Chuck Carnevale on Seeking Alpha.

Chuck has some great articles on valuation, and an excellent tool available. David is more dividend/retirement oriented, and puts out a good e-book at the beginning of the year. They both have great articles on SA, and both of their services are worth giving a shot (and I have no affiliation with either of them)

The Money Monk

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Re: educating myself on investing?
« Reply #5 on: February 20, 2013, 11:20:50 AM »
Check out David Van Knapp and Chuck Carnevale on Seeking Alpha.

Chuck has some great articles on valuation, and an excellent tool available. David is more dividend/retirement oriented, and puts out a good e-book at the beginning of the year. They both have great articles on SA, and both of their services are worth giving a shot (and I have no affiliation with either of them)

Thanks, I'll check them out.

jpo

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Re: educating myself on investing?
« Reply #6 on: February 20, 2013, 11:33:31 AM »
Might be worth reading A Random Walk Down Wall Street, if you haven't already.

KingCoin

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Re: educating myself on investing?
« Reply #7 on: February 20, 2013, 01:04:23 PM »
Thanks for the info. The only individual stock valuation I plan on doing would be for the purposes of long term dividend investing, not 'trading' per se.

Got it. Just be honest with yourself. Whether holding for the long or short term, by buying individual stocks, you're making the implicit claim that you think you can outperform the market over the long term. Most of Dividend Matra's stock are mature, mega-cap companies. So if you're mirroring his strategy, you're betting on large cap vs small cap and dividend payers vs companies that primarily retain earnings to reinvest in their businesses.

There's nothing necessarily wrong with that, but I think it's important to make implicit claims explicit and examine those claims. In this case "I think large cap dividend payers will outperform the broad market over time. I also believe that I can pick dividend payers that will outperform other dividend payers, so I will choose individual stocks rather than an ETF that focuses on large cap dividend paying stocks."

LSK

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Re: educating myself on investing?
« Reply #8 on: February 20, 2013, 01:59:22 PM »
I would recommend stopping by Jlcollins blog:

http://jlcollinsnh.wordpress.com/

He's posted on MMM before, and I really see his blog as the financial counterpart to MMM's broader ER blog. Both blogs pretty much comes from the same school of thought and Jlcollins blog has some excellent posts written for total investment newbies (like me).
I really like Jlcollins goal of creating no-fuzz investments that doesn't turn into a second job.
Anyways, stop by and read his series of posts starting with the 'How I failed my daughter...' and be sure to check out the comments too, much valuable information is found there too.

Hubbard521

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Re: educating myself on investing?
« Reply #9 on: February 20, 2013, 03:05:19 PM »
I would recommend checking out one of William Bernstein's book as well, such as The Four Pillars of Investing.  He provides a good deal of information for effectively designing your own longer term portfolio.  He's big into diversification; seems like that might be a good fit.  I also enjoy hearing a bit of the more conservative side of ER - though I always take it with a grain of salt.

COguy

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Re: educating myself on investing?
« Reply #10 on: February 20, 2013, 04:58:36 PM »
I second Jim Collins as probably the best place to start.

Personally, I taught myself on the investing for beginners section on about.com and Joshua Kennon's (about.com author) personal website.  He does a great job of helping you to think of investing and economics as a business owner not just as a glorified savings account

http://beginnersinvest.about.com/
http://www.joshuakennon.com/

The "Four Pillars of Investing" and "A Random Walk Down Wall Street" are great overall investing theory books as well and I would definitely read them once you feel like you understand the basic jargon.

After you have read all of the above, If you still want to dig into how to value business'.   I would recommend checking out Benjamin Graham, Peter Lynch, and Philip Fisher's books and whatever suits your fancy. 

yolfer

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Re: educating myself on investing?
« Reply #11 on: February 20, 2013, 05:21:30 PM »
If you're more of a book person here are a few recommended reads:

Your Money Or Your Life by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez (The grandpappy of Mustachianism. See MMM's review of the book)

The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by John C. Bogle (the guy who started Vanguard).

The Behavior Gap: Simple Ways to Stop Doing Dumb Things with Money by Carl Richards (debunks common investment myths)

PS: MMM maintains his own reading list: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/the-mmm-reading-list/

hoppy08520

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Re: educating myself on investing?
« Reply #12 on: February 20, 2013, 07:05:31 PM »
I would recommend checking out one of William Bernstein's book as well, such as The Four Pillars of Investing.  He provides a good deal of information for effectively designing your own longer term portfolio.  He's big into diversification; seems like that might be a good fit.  I also enjoy hearing a bit of the more conservative side of ER - though I always take it with a grain of salt.
I second this recommendation. My favorite investing book. Very readable and even funny. If that book is too long, consider his shorter "Investors Manifesto."  Same message but stripped down a bit, more applied advice and less theory/history, although I think Pillars is a better book.