Bogleheads, and the bogleheads guide to investing
https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Bogleheads®_personal_finance_planning_start-up_kit
https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Bogleheads'_Guide_To_Investing
I’m very glad that someone recommended me bogleheads, after reading, I was able to open up a roth and contribute yearly which may be one of the best personal finance decisions I’ve made.
OP, this is all you need right here.
The Bogleheads Guide to Investing was the thing that helped me the most. My family got me prepared for day to day finance, but nobody explained retirement savings to me.
This book broke everything down into easy to understand terms, and made me feel comfortable investing wisely.
The book used to be free online, but I don’t see it anymore. You could search up a PDF, or they have a really good wiki that covers most of it, but more briefly. Here is the Getting Started page.
I found the book here for free: https://archive.org/details/null-1_202312/mode/1up
Perfect!
Give that a read, and then if you want to follow it, the wiki will give you the current lowest costs funds for all the major companies so you can do your IRA/401/HSA into the best funds available.
Thank you!
Starting to manage your personal finances using a dedicated software application will help you adopt healthy financial habits.
I’d recommend this free and open-source personal finance application: MoneyManager Ex - https://moneymanagerex.org/
It works on Windows, MacOS, Linux, and Android.
Disclaimer: I’m not affiliated in any way. I’ve just been happy with the application for more than 7 years.
The book “I will teach you to be rich” has a great overview of how to best leverage credit cards, high yield savings accounts, setting up automatic investments, saving, and lots of other ‘good to know’ topics about money.
For investing specifically I use the Boglehead method.
As for personal finance, The Investment Answer is a little dated now, but still good for the basics. It’s a short book. I’ve never looked at Bogleheads, but I suspect it’s along the same lines because folks there seemed to like it 13 years ago.
I tried a few different things, and eventually settled on my own budgeting spreadsheet that I did in Apple numbers. I have tabs for each pay period, and I am working on having amounts automatically roll over to the next tab.
EDIT: I tried YNAB and was tearing out my non-existent hair. What a non-intuitive cluster fuck of twisted logic.
Watch videos from these three and you will learn a lot:
Ben Felix
Plain Bagle
Two Cents
Avoid any youtubers that give advice on specific stocks to buy. All mentioned above are professionals, with different specialities within finance and personal finance.
Also be very skeptical about cryptocurrencies. If you really want to invest in it, then consider a very low allocation. Maybe 1-2% of your net wealth. Most cryptocurrencies and projects are a scam. The youtubers I suggested do not promote crypto, or specific stocks.
I am not a professional, so keep that in mind :)
