I think you just need to listen to one episode of Freakonomics:
http://freakonomics.com/podcast/stupidest-thing-can-money-rebroadcast/Canadian Couch Potato is a good one (although I don't think he's doing more episodes). In particular, I like these ones (not Canada specific, good for everyone).
https://canadiancouchpotato.com/2017/01/11/podcast-3-a-hedge-fund-manager-comes-clean/https://canadiancouchpotato.com/2017/01/25/podcast-4-charles-ellis-and-the-index-revolution/https://canadiancouchpotato.com/2018/03/17/podcast-15-the-value-of-simple/I thought that Mad Fientist's interview with the guy from I Will Make You Rich was good.
https://www.madfientist.com/ramit-sethi-interview/So was the most recent one with Tim Ferriss:
so was the most recent one with Tim Ferriss)Ferriss also interviewed MMM, but that's more lifestyle than investing (so are the ones with Ramit)
https://tim.blog/2017/02/13/mr-money-mustache/If you don't want to listen to the podcasts, read this:
(1) pick an asset allocation,
(2) buy low cost index funds / ETFs,
(3) rebalance every year,
(4) have a high savings rate (which is probably the most important part),
(5) it's probably better to use tax sheltered accounts as much as possible. You won't actually know if Roth or Traditional is better for your use case until you're pulling out money, so a healthy mix is probably a good way to go to maintain flexibility.
(6) short term goals with rigid timelines probably need investments with low volatility (and correspondingly low yield). It sucks, but the market isn't a high yield savings account (even though it seems like it has been over the last 10 years or so).
The data seems to suggest that this will do better than all but a vanishingly small percentage of people who are investing actively (either themselves or through expensive fund managers) over a long period of time (i.e. the rest of your expected life time).
