Investing QuickStart Guide

"Investing QuickStart Guide is an informative investment tool for those striving to achieve financial independence. Filled with valuable tips and practical advice, Ted Snow's Investing QuickStart Guide: Second Edition is for those interested in navigating the stock market, growing their wealth, and creating a secure financial future. Direct and progressive, this text covers topics like key asset classes, investment strategies and tactics, and related decisions and services. Its prominent concepts are shaded for emphasis and are marked with useful symbols and labels. The book's chapter overviews and recaps are clear guideposts through its lessons, reinforcing its central points well. The book opens with a compelling personal story about a pension paperwork error that led to financial ruin. To help others avoid such catastrophic financial mistakes, the book brims with up-to-date assessments of economic statuses, including regarding inflation and the risk of not investing. It treats topics like annuities in terms of their pros and cons, complementing these assessments with direct warnings and clear opinions about factors like commercial real estate investment and personal liabilities. Illustrations including graphs, charts, and figures encapsulate and extend key points in the text, representing visual quick-takes on factors like asset allocation; large-, mid-, and small-cap companies; and the ""buying low and selling high"" mentality. A tidy glossary clarifies elusive terms including ""blockchain,"" ""capital gain,"" ""risk tolerance,"" and ""value investing"" in a concise manner. However, the book's discussion of bond holders who act as creditors is a winding one, and its cautionary note about day trading comes sans a clarifying scale to place the cited numbers in context. Further, a reference to following a ""gut-hunch stock pick"" as a beginner contradicts its earlier dismissal of reliance on intuition. The book distinguishes itself most with its fascinating discussions of topics like behavioral finance, ethical investment decisions, and the FIRE (financial independence, retire early) movement. These are complemented by its probing personal assessment questions and suggested steps for achieving financial independence. Further, its smart recommendations about market strategies for winning in both good and bad times, and its overflowing takeaways (like its list of an investor's three biggest mistakes), prove edifying. It is also compelling in encouraging its audience to follow the decisions of notable investors like Warren Buffet and Sir John Templeton. Its naming of foolproof investment strategies, including riding out downturns in the market, help to make its recommendations stick. Presenting balanced positions with long-term vision, Investing QuickStart Guide is an informative investment tool for those striving to achieve financial independence. Reviewed by Andrea Hammer Foreword Clarion Reviews"