Learn more about investing and investment choices

Learn More About Investing

Being a successful investor requires money, patience, and just as important, confidence. Having the confidence to make- and stand-by your financial decisions requires education. Never stop learning.

If you’re looking for a good investing book, you owe it to yourself to read Benjamin Graham’s The Intelligent Investor. Graham’s writing style isn’t for everyone, in which case you may prefer The Rediscovered Benjamin Graham– a collection of interviews and lectures with the “father of value investing.” Warren Buffett’s annual letters to shareholders also make for good reading – they are free to download on the Berkshire-Hathaway website.

About.com’s Joshua Kennon does an admirable job at explaining basic- and advanced-financial concepts – most importantly, how successful people think about money.

Lastly, TheStreet has been publishing investment guides since 1996 – if you’re just getting started, you may be interested in our glossary of financial terms and articles on investing basics. For more advanced readers, you’re free to enjoy daily stock ideas from professional traders and investors.

Learn more about investment choices

Some great websites for researching mutual funds, stocks, and general financial planning

1. https://www.morningstar.com/

   1. This is the company that really originated the concept of raning mutual funds. It also created the star system to score them.
   2. Another impressive feature is its fund reports, which provide a general description of virtually every fund there is along with an in-depth analysis that is easy to read and understand.
   3. You can also research individual stocks.
   4. You have to subscribe to get their detailed assessments, but general summaries are available for free.
   5. Try this: go to the website and click on “Mutual Funds”. Then, click on “Fund Quickrank”. For fun, start by screening “US Stock Funds” by “Total return %: 10 Year Annualized”. This will give you a list of to performing US funds over the last 10 years.

2. https://finance.yahoo.com

   1. Offers a true full-service financial portal, with stock and mutual fund analysis, portfolio tracking, online bill paying, message boards, research, and much more.
   2. Try this: go to the website and click on “Mutual Funds”. Then, click on “mutual fund screener”. When it asks you for qualifications, select “Any US Stock Funds”, at longer than 5 years of tenure, with a minimum initial investment of less than $10K and rank by performance. This will give us a long list of funds that have generated an average return of better an 10% a year. From there, we can screen for a fund that meets our particular requirements (such as one that requires an initial investment of less than $1K).

3. https://www.mfea.com

   1. Looking for a quick list of mutual funds that let you invest less than $50/month?
   2. This website’s fund center will give a long list of mutual funds companies that welcome small investors.
   3. There is also valuable educational information on the benefits of mutual fund investing and tons of free tools to help you learn more.

4. https://smartmoney.com

   1. Created by the editors of Smart Money magazine.
   2. Easy to use and fun to work with.
   3. So many articles that you could spend hours here and just scratch the surface.
   4. Look at the Personal Financial Planning section.
   5. There is also a great section in this area on retirement planning and tons of tools.

5. https://nyse.com

   1. Official site of the New York Stock Exchange.
   2. Has detailed data about every NYSE-listed company as well as solid background information on how the exchange works.

6. https://nasdaq.com

   1. For real-time stock quotes and detailed information about any of the more than 4000 companies listed on the NASDAQ stock market.

7. https://help.guideline.com/en/