Where to Start with Finances - Recommendations for Books or PDFs?

[gravityeyelids]

I'm starting to realize that this whole "rat race" is a trap for the most part. Go to school, get a job, prove yourself as a dedicated and honest employee and then very slowly work your way up the ladder and maintain a stable and steady source of income...progressively working harder and harder with very little increase in income while your expenses and taxes rise. The times are changing and this is no longer the way to become wealthy and stay wealthy.

I have always been one of those kids who sees the weaknesses in the system and exploits them. While my less intelligent friends were spending hours memorizing every detail in their classes and pouring over hours and hours of notes, I would pay careful attention to any hints the teachers gave about their exam-giving methods and EXACTLY what was going to be on the exams. I would take classes by the same teachers that i had had in previous so that i would know their methods already and know how they graded and what was important to them. Then, I would study ONLY exactly what was needed to do well on the exams and projects and get far better grades than other students, and use the hours of free time i gained to teach myself skills more relevant to my career.

Some will say: oh! but those kids have learned far more through their constant absorption of knowledge. Not so. While they were trying to cram countless details of a dry text book that would flutter out of their brain a mere couple weeks after, I was learning the things that I would actually remember from my classes, and all the while pursuing my own interests in things like philosophy, literature, music, filmmaking, finances, self-improvement, fitness and nutrition, etc. etc. and learning things that would both help me and that I would remember.

Believe me: I am a great lover of books and knowledge, and I try to fill myself with as much as possible. I'm not advocating against that. What i am advocating against is simply learning unnecessary things that you will forget simply because you are expected to in order to fulfill this high school --> college --> steady job wet dream that most parents have.

I am a college grad. I am finishing up a Master's Degree. I am not a college hater. I am all for it. But i am against the belief that college and dedication alone will make you successful. You have to think outside the box.

I believe that a large portion of succeeding in life is knowing how to play the system. There is no universal karma rewarding the hardest working person. Just because you bust your a$$ constantly is no guarantee that you will succeed. Don't misread me here. I'm not encouraging unethical or illegal behavior. I'm simply saying that those who are the smartest and most successful realize that EFFICIENCY is everything. I have seen my friends, who are very stubborn... raised on this "work ethic is everything, and if you are not motivated and busting your a$$ constantly, then you are a piece of sh!t and shouldnt live in MURICA!!!"

FVCK THAT. I want to work the least amount of time possible and make the most amount of money possible so that i can live my life and have time to cultivate my interests and improve myself in the ways that i want to improve myself in, not the ways that some employer thinks i should.

I am a lazy man. I go to the gym five times a week. I have a rigorous diet. I spend hours and hours pouring over books and material and building myself up to learn skills and knowledge that i want to learn to lead a happy life. But when it comes to my slightly above-minimum wage jobs... i could care less. I don't want to spend the rest of my life having precious hours sapped away doing something I dont enjoy.

TLDR: I am looking for any resources i can peruse that will help me begin to delve into finances and investment, and specifically any resources that are geared towards making money outside of the standard 40hrs/week, salary job, shoot-myself-in-the-head cubicle nonsense. I'm not looking for get rich quick schemes. I am willing to put in the work, especially if it will pay off in the long term.

 

[Bible_Belt]

Pick a financial market and start "paper trading." You want what is called a "trading simulator." www.wallstreetsurvivor.com has a good one for stocks. If you want in-depth research there are programs like metastock that let you back-test trading ideas, which of course does not guarantee anything, but is a good starting point, especially for guys who write computer trading programs.

If you are interested in real estate, you can learn a lot for free at your county courthouse. The bored women who work there will be happy to teach you if you are nice to them. When I was in college, I used to go to the courthouse in Tampa the morning they published the lis pendens list of foreclosures. I would scout out the few properties where the owner had equity, and then do lien searches across the hallway to find the one or two a week that were good deals to buy out from under the bank. Then in the afternoon I would go knock on the doors, asking to buy their house for a low price before the bank took it and they got nothing.

 

[gravityeyelids]

Pick a financial market and start "paper trading." You want what is called a "trading simulator." www.wallstreetsurvivor.com has a good one for stocks. If you want in-depth research there are programs like metastock that let you back-test trading ideas, which of course does not guarantee anything, but is a good starting point, especially for guys who write computer trading programs.

If you are interested in real estate, you can learn a lot for free at your county courthouse. The bored women who work there will be happy to teach you if you are nice to them. When I was in college, I used to go to the courthouse in Tampa the morning they published the lis pendens list of foreclosures. I would scout out the few properties where the owner had equity, and then do lien searches across the hallway to find the one or two a week that were good deals to buy out from under the bank. Then in the afternoon I would go knock on the doors, asking to buy their house for a low price before the bank took it and they got nothing.

Hmm... I appreciate the post, but my knowledge in finances and stock exchange is rock bottom. I've never taken an accounting or finances class, i hardly know how to fill out the few tax forms that are required for my past jobs, and my knowledge of the stock market is only that that i learned doing a fake stock exchange game in high school like 10 years ago. I wouldn't know where to start with the simulators, at least not in any intelligent way....

I feel like it's a good idea to read up on how to trade stocks and how the stock market works first? I'm not exaggerating when I say that i'm basically braindead when it comes to finances.

 

[dasein]

Based on your OP and listed age, my sincerest advice is to get a job in some kind of financial sales rather than read a bunch of books. Could even be an internship or parttime thing. Being immersed in financial sales daily will do two things for you that are much more important than reading books 1. Build a sense of humility and objectivity about investments by way of critical thinking skills that will save you tons of money down the road; 2. Hone sales skills that are valuable in every workplace and every life situation.

Should you decide to do it fulltime for awhile, the government licensing exams you will have to take will guarantee you a basic workable knowledge of everything other than real estate. It is hard work (not the licensing, which is relatively easy, but the daily sales routine and maintaining high energy), but if you can sell financial products, you can sell anything. Excellent resume' builder for many types of work... other than finance ironically, where retail experience seems to be a negative. To go into the more corporate side of finance, either bootstrap yourself up or go to a top 10 business school and be top 10% in the class.

Do read books too. I've done both the sales (for 9 years in a past career) and the reading, and would gladly trade all the 100s of books read for the experience of selling the stuff for a few months. Good luck.

 

[Bible_Belt]

Knowledge can be academic, or it can be practical. They both have value. But they're entirely different. I have seen a lot of people with very little academic knowledge make a lot of money as traders. Some of them had very little education, others barely spoke English. Hell, I've been one of them myself. I've made money with methods that I don't really understand why they work, just that they worked. And I've seen very smart, educated guys get wiped out on trades that made good logical sense.

I always did love that about the financial markets. They don't care if you're illiterate, or you have a collection of PhDs on your wall, your trades have the same chance of making or losing money regardless.

Here's another good free web site about swing trading stocks: www.hardrightedge.com The guy who runs it is a legit trader. You might also check out the forums at www.elitetrader.com

 

[Tenacity]

gravityeyelids

I'm starting to realize that this whole "rat race" is a trap for the most part. Go to school, get a job, prove yourself as a dedicated and honest employee and then very slowly work your way up the ladder and maintain a stable and steady source of income...progressively working harder and harder with very little increase in income while your expenses and taxes rise. The times are changing and this is no longer the way to become wealthy and stay wealthy.

Okay, listen. There is NO plan to become wealthy, which based on my definition is being in the Top 0.1% of individual income earners grossing over $500,000 a year. You can't sit down and strategically PLOT that out, those who get to those heights are mainly there due to some circumstance that swung their way positively AS WELL AS them being in the networked 'place/position' to take advantage of it.

What you CAN DO, is plot out how to get to the Top 5% of individual income earners, which I define as grossing over $100,000 a year OR to get to the Top 10% - 12% of individual income earners, which are those grossing between $50,000 - $80,000.

All of these numbers are based on being in an efficient cost of living area, if you stay in a high cost of living area like NYC, times those numbers by 2.

Your goal should be to get to these numbers I laid out FIRST, once you are there, then you can look at making some strategic moves to potentially put you in a 'place/position' for the potential Top 0.1% of gross income off an identified "opportunity". I will tell you though, people at that level (who didn't inherit it) are usually there due to a major equity deal. Trading stocks on the public market, for the most part, won't get you here. It's taking advantage of the equity deal BEFORE it goes to market, that's where the majority of the money is made.

 

[ZTIME]

Start with a simple list of things you like to do, working out, riding bikes, caring for animals, etc. In that list find jobs or business opportunities that revolve around those likes. Learn those businesses inside and out. Maybe even work at one of them for a few years to gain experience.

If you've got a good personality and a brain, which it sounds like you do, start a career in sales. Everything in the world is for sale (Cars, motorcycles, boats, jets, houses, buildings, etc.) and based on the size of the item you're selling you can earn large sums of capital. Save the capital. Listen to Bible Belt and learn the market.

Tenacity points out some good income guidelines, but those guidelines must come with age goals as well. It goes like this: I'm 23 I make $22'000 a year. By 25 I need to earn $40k per year, by 28 I need to earn $60k per year, etc. etc. etc. Now divide those numbers by 365 and that's your daily income goal.

As you're doing all of this, start to develop a business plan to create your own company. Preferably based on what you have learned in the "real world" not books. Nothing is wrong with books and they can help, but nothing beats real world experience. And please learn how to use Microsoft excel, it will help you understand numbers and a world of other things.

If you choose to read, start off simple. "who moved my cheese" (you can read it in 2 hours), "the Celestin prophesy" (opens up a new thought process), "The E-myth" (great understanding of small business), "sales dogs" (a basic understanding of personalities), "Good to Great" (a more in-depth guide to business), "Blue Ocean Strategy" (Understanding your marketing area). I could do this all day, but nothing beats real world experience.

I hope this helped, and in case you're curious...................Yes I've walked that path and the advice is sound. Good luck friend, Lazy won't cut it.

 

[Masculinity]

Yes, read these two books:

Stocks, securities, and capitalist markets:

http://www.amazon.com/Street-Journal-Guide-Understanding-Investing/dp/0684869020

Credit and personal finance:

http://www.amazon.com/Journal-Understanding-Personal-Finance-Edition/dp/0743266323