Author Topic: Investing newbie wants to learn  (Read 2601 times)

Izybat

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Investing newbie wants to learn
« on: November 07, 2016, 06:21:39 PM »
I'm fairly new to investing, but I'm really interested to learn more about it. Thus far in my life, my investment strategy has stopped at "put money in a 401k, pick a life cycle fund, set it to increase 1% per year". When I read most of the investing posts it seems like a foreign language with all the acronyms and new terminology.

I'm looking for a really good book or a website that can help me figure out where to even start. Any suggestions?

Frankies Girl

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Re: Investing newbie wants to learn
« Reply #1 on: November 07, 2016, 06:26:43 PM »
http://jlcollinsnh.com/stock-series/
Buy his book, or read on the site or check it out from the library.

Easy to understand, no complicated language - smart, easy investing advice.


mgarf

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Re: Investing newbie wants to learn
« Reply #2 on: November 07, 2016, 06:35:36 PM »
I made an investment beginner guide found at www.investlogic.ca because it took too darn long to learn it all myself from the available resources. Check it out.
« Last Edit: November 07, 2016, 06:40:51 PM by mgarf »

MDM

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Re: Investing newbie wants to learn
« Reply #3 on: November 07, 2016, 06:46:55 PM »
I'm looking for a really good book or a website that can help me figure out where to even start. Any suggestions?
See Help me figure out retirement planning (includes the JLCollins link) and http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Category:Getting_started for some "getting started" information.

For longer works, http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/the-mmm-reading-list/ and Books: recommendations and reviews - BogleheadsA Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel and The Four Pillars of Investing by William Bernstein are a couple of popularly suggested books.

Mighty-Dollar

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Re: Investing newbie wants to learn
« Reply #4 on: November 08, 2016, 12:59:32 AM »
Study all you want but it all should boil down to investing total stock and total bond index funds, with maybe a total international stock index fund thrown in. Decide a bond/stock allocation ratio that suits your risk profile, then rebalance if it deviates by a certain percentage such as 5 or 10%.
Helpful sites for determining allocation ratio:
https://www.blackrock.com/wte/core-builder/us?refType=fi
https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/tools/recommendation?reset=true

Rockies

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Re: Investing newbie wants to learn
« Reply #5 on: November 13, 2016, 08:05:40 PM »
You dont need to know everything at once, and can learn over time. I'd keep it really this simple:

1. Don't invest until you have paid off all debts (other than a home mortgage), have an emergency fund in place,
2.Open an account in vanguard, and put your money into index funds. Do not invest in more than 3-4 funds to start.
3. Use the vanguard calculator that the last poster used to determine how much of your money you should place in each fund.


A few things to remember:

-Only check your balance every few months (probably every 6 months is best).
-Read about IRA's Roth IRA's 401k's. These are basically accounts that you can put your money in to avoid taxes. If you dont understand them in your first year of investing its not a big problem, but you will want to start utilizing them soon.
-Only invest money that you won't need for at least 5 years. Dont worry about small or large fluctuations in value. Over time it will go up.
-As you learn more you might want to make adjustments to how much you have invested in each fund, but at the beginning it only matters that you start investing. Don't sweat or overthink the small stuff. Most people on this forum overthink a lot about their investments. In reality keeping things very simple and changing them rarely is the best strategy.

Good luck! You will do great. I started investing when I was in my teens and didnt really fully start researching it until many years later. Thanks to just blindly putting money into mutual funds when I was young and forgetting about it I am a lot richer now than if I would have hoarded cash.
« Last Edit: November 14, 2016, 06:53:04 PM by Rockies »

Tyler

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Re: Investing newbie wants to learn
« Reply #6 on: November 14, 2016, 09:56:50 AM »
Hi Izybat.  I recently added a few things to help investing newcomers trying to get their bearings.  Here's a good place to start:

Why Passive Investing Is A Great Choice

Hopefully you'll find it helpful.  Great job seeking out new knowledge!