So you’re starting to think about investing and retirement – well, I hope you’re ready for a lot of confusing lingo, math formulas with lots of Greek symbols, and a healthy pile of shame (why did you wait soooo long to start to invest, and also at the same time, who do you think you are to try to invest, you awful materialist!!).
People will scare you (you’d better trust a professional because you might lose an eye) intimidate you, and scam you (psst, want to be a genuine Pokemon card? Half off for you today only…) and make you feel like a moron because you only made 9.5% last year and not 9.7%….
I am kidding, but only kind of. You’ll find investing is about as complicated as you want it to be, but it can simplified into a couple of simple ideas.
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Have a reasonable vision of your future.
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Invest early and often.
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Let time (aka “compound interest”) do the heavy lifting.
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Diversify and leave it alone.
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Do the math.
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Don’t put your faith in anything other than God. Money can’t save you or give you peace (but it is very helpful for buying food and shelter).
If you start here, you’re going to be in good shape. If you start with Instagram, YouTube or even the pros, you’re going to get a pretty strange view of what normal is, and what success looks like. Advice is contradictory, motives are unclear, and while you think that you’re the one searching for advice, the only thing that’s clear is that you’re not the predator here, you’re the prey.
So what to do? Get to a library. Get on Amazon. Find a book that’s not selling you anything. Check out a community that’s working together (google “Boggleheads”) or check out a podcast (early episodes of InvestED / Rule One Investing). Education is your biggest advantage here, and the earlier the better. Learn about value investing and Buffett / Munger.
You need time for compounding interest to do its magic!