<div class="bbWrapper">The best way you can become financially literate is to study <b>accounting and finance</b>. I would recommend getting <b>VERY</b> familiar with the basic financial statements: income statement, cash flows, balance sheet. Corporate finance and personal finance are almost exactly alike (avoid leverage(debt) control expenses, dont be a cash burner etc). if you master personal finance you can easily weed out bad companies when you do investment analysis. Another VERY important thing you need to know is time value of money(present value, future value). Get yourself a financial calculator. I use the HP 12c. You'll be shocked how many people do not know how much total interest they will pay on a loan they take out :nonod:. This calculator is also helpful for bond valuations. If you master this calculator you will be a financial wizard:great: Know HOW/WHY the stock market goes up and down(supply and demand). get to know over the counter stocks traded on the pink sheets(more risky). know different investment theories/strategies. know technical analysis etc. the best investment advice ive ever heard is this: "be greedy when others are fearful and fearful when others are greedy"- warren buffett, "the stock market is a voting machine short term and a weighing machine long term"- ben graham, "the dumbest reason to buy a stock is because it is going up"- warren buffett. remember the stock market is <b>pretty much </b>efficient, all stocks are bid up to a certain valuation based on public available information such as quarterly reports, analyst reports etc. stocks are cheap for a reason, they go down for a reason. at my university there are book shelves and book shelves, hundreds of books on finance, investment and accounting. and guess what? ANYBODY can go in there and grab a book and read it even if you are not a student!!!! it's F%$%$N FREE!!!, everytime i go there its a ghost town, ive <b>never seen ONE</b> person go through the book shelves but you can be sure that the computer tables are full with people surfing facebook and youtube :nonod: IMAGINE if you read every single one of those books, youll be a genius, this is what warren buffett did with his time at columbia university, he read all finance and investment books , stock market history at the library etc theres the process behind his billion dollar empire/fortune:smxF:. go google all of this stuff i learned all of this at the library and online, thats how i was able to make <b>A KILLING </b>last year in the stock market by taking advantage of the whole greek default scare. i have a 150% unrealized gain. you can do it!<br />
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@MJ Demarco: that would be an amazing book if it were ever written as the market is in desperate need of a "full blown" ultimate financial literacy book, WAY too many people lack this type of knowledge and i know a lot of people who have said "i have had enough, i need to be my own financial advisor" or "i need to know how money works" type of talk. a lot of people dont know where to start when it comes to this, and they sometimes feel overwhelmed. im always impressed by your entrepreneur lenses of finding needs/ identifying opportunities MJ <img src="/community/styles/default/xenforo/smilies/tiphat.gif" class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":tiphat:" title="Tip Hat :tiphat:" data-shortname=":tiphat:" /> i'm only 20 so i'm desperately working to get them better focused myself hahaha<br />
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oh an don't forget MArginal analysis (cost/benefit) when it comes to financial decisions.</div>
