Strategy to "learn" investing?
Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2018 2:06 am
Hey ERE community! It's my first post here, though I am a vivid reader from Germany and deep into the topic and general life learning in general for a long, long time. My background: I am a software developer, 29 years old and freelancing. I also have a second income stream as a writer for tech magazines.
Since I am freelancing, I want (and have) to plan my retirement by myself. I am pretty good with money management and general life lessons. I did an apprenticeship as an electricians and worked as small, medium and large size companies from all different areas. So I would say my life skills are pretty decent.
I am reading now the Financial Times, The Economist and other, more conservative german finance news. I bought my first stocks, they did poorly, so I switched to ETFs. Then I've read more about stocks and companies but quickly realised how BIG this whole universe is and that I won't be able to filter the signal from the noise.
Therefore I've read Munger, Buffet, Graham and other finance/life books. Afterwards I focussed on my circle of competence and now my hand picked stocks are doing better then my ETFs (at the moment).
Now there was a little hickup in the market yesterday and I had NO idea what's going on (as probably nobody really, just assumptions I guess). I pay to be part of this german company who is giving advice/news on financial situations and they were always on point. But I don't want to rely solely on this news source, I want to make up my own mind.
Before I get to the questions, one last thing: I am good in tech and have a good sense of whats happening. So every time I read tech stories in the newspapers, no matter which, I roll my eyes about 95% of the stories. Because they are short sighted or plain wrong. Now I rely on those newspapers for my financial advice and this makes me worried.
Questions:
- How to I build a deep foundation? I read a lot but feel like floating in mid air with all the information.
- What are the steps or courses to take to build a good, solid foundation without all the noise?
I've read Jacobs book several times now and this helped me a lot (I was already thinking like that for years and finally somebody put it out in written words). So any ideas of how to get competent in the financial sector? In my understanding it's 50% understanding finance and company books, and 50% world and market understanding.
Which tactics did you use to get competent, what was your journey?
Since I am freelancing, I want (and have) to plan my retirement by myself. I am pretty good with money management and general life lessons. I did an apprenticeship as an electricians and worked as small, medium and large size companies from all different areas. So I would say my life skills are pretty decent.
I am reading now the Financial Times, The Economist and other, more conservative german finance news. I bought my first stocks, they did poorly, so I switched to ETFs. Then I've read more about stocks and companies but quickly realised how BIG this whole universe is and that I won't be able to filter the signal from the noise.
Therefore I've read Munger, Buffet, Graham and other finance/life books. Afterwards I focussed on my circle of competence and now my hand picked stocks are doing better then my ETFs (at the moment).
Now there was a little hickup in the market yesterday and I had NO idea what's going on (as probably nobody really, just assumptions I guess). I pay to be part of this german company who is giving advice/news on financial situations and they were always on point. But I don't want to rely solely on this news source, I want to make up my own mind.
Before I get to the questions, one last thing: I am good in tech and have a good sense of whats happening. So every time I read tech stories in the newspapers, no matter which, I roll my eyes about 95% of the stories. Because they are short sighted or plain wrong. Now I rely on those newspapers for my financial advice and this makes me worried.
Questions:
- How to I build a deep foundation? I read a lot but feel like floating in mid air with all the information.
- What are the steps or courses to take to build a good, solid foundation without all the noise?
I've read Jacobs book several times now and this helped me a lot (I was already thinking like that for years and finally somebody put it out in written words). So any ideas of how to get competent in the financial sector? In my understanding it's 50% understanding finance and company books, and 50% world and market understanding.
Which tactics did you use to get competent, what was your journey?